Hepatitis A can be spread in fecally contaminated food and water, and symptoms include nausea, vomiting and sometimes jaundice, a yellowing of the skin due to reduced liver function.
Hepatitis B can be spread by infected blood or body fluids, such as during sexual contact, sharing IV needles, or by using contaminated equipment in body piercing or tattooing.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved a combination vaccine for hepatitis A and hepatitis B on November 12.
The Twinrix vaccine is the world's only combination vaccine for the prevention of hepatitis A and B. Hepatitis A and hepatitis B are viruses that infect the liver.
The approval is also especially important for Americans traveling overseas, who often are vaccinated for hepatitis A but not hepatitis B, she said.
Each year, an estimated 125,000 to 200,000 Americans are infected with hepatitis A and another 140,000 to 320,000 are infected with hepatitis B.
Twinrix currently is approved in 70 markets worldwide, including the European Union, where it was launched in 1996. Glaxo has distributed nearly 12 million doses.
Reuters Washington D.C., November 13, 2001
While 67% of hepatitis A cases occur in children, over 70% of the deaths occur in those over the age of 49. Even with those risks for adults, complications are rare and infection from hepatitis A is generally followed by complete recovery.
So we have yet another vaccine recommendation with very little benefit.
According to the hepatitis A vaccine manufacturers' own product inserts, the hepatitis A vaccine has NOT been "evaluated or tested for its carcinogenic potential, mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility" or "reproductive capacity".
It is irresponsible to recommend this vaccine because there have been NO long term studies on the cumulative effect on the child's developing immune system. Combining this vaccine with all the required vaccines together, the biological mechanism for why some children react to this vaccine is not understood, and there are no genetic or other lab screening tests available to determine which children will react to this vaccine.
Hepatitis B vaccine is associated with its own set of problems, the most significant being brain injury. This was largely related to the common practice of administering this vaccine that has mercury as a preservative, to newborns within a few days of being born.
Hepatitis B is a rare, mainly blood-transmitted disease. In 1996 only 54 cases of the disease were reported to the CDC in the 0-1 age group. It sure does not make much sense to recommend a vaccine that could possibly reduce the risk of disease in a few dozen children in exchange for causing severe and frequently irreversible brain damage in tens of thousands of children.
Combining these vaccines certainly would seem to compound the problem. Just be alert that this new vaccine combination is in the wings waiting to wreak its havoc on your children.
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The Fallacy of the Hepatitis A Vaccine Hepatitis B Vaccinations: Michael Belkin Testimony to Congress Tuesday May 18, 1999 Hepatitis B Vaccine Mercury in Vaccines Autism 'Linked to Mercury Vaccine' Follow the Money on Vaccines
The Fallacy of the Hepatitis A Vaccine
Hepatitis B Vaccinations: Michael Belkin Testimony to Congress Tuesday May 18, 1999
Hepatitis B Vaccine
Mercury in Vaccines
Autism 'Linked to Mercury Vaccine'
Follow the Money on Vaccines