The prestigious peer reviewed journal Autoimmunity published data this week by Dr. J. Bart Classen, an immunologist at Classen Immunotherapies, and David Carey Classen, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Utah, proving a causal relationship between the hemophilus vaccine and the development of insulin dependent diabetes. The data is particularly disturbing because it indicates the risks of the vaccine exceeds the benefit. The findings are expected to allow many diabetics to receive compensation for their injuries and lead to safer immunization.

The study followed over 100,000 children which had been randomized in a large clinical trial to receive 1 or 4 doses of the hemophilus vaccine and over 100,000 unvaccinated children. After 7 years the group receiving 4 doses of the vaccine had a statistically significant 26% elevated rate of diabetes, or an extra 54 cases/100,000 children, compared to children who did not receive the vaccine.

By contrast immunization against hemophilus is expected to prevent only 7 deaths and 7 to 26 cases of permanent disability per 100,000 children immunized. The study showed that almost all of the extra cases of diabetes caused by the vaccine occurred between 3-4 years after vaccination. Furthermore the paper provides new data proving the vaccine causes diabetes in mice and reviews data from 3 smaller human studies, which all had similar results to the current study, but were too small to reach statistical significance.

"Our results conclusively prove there is a causal relationship between immunization schedules and diabetes. We believe immunization schedules can be made safer," stated Dr. Bart Classen.

The Classens' research is already becoming widely accepted. An independent group of researchers working at a prestigious Swedish medical center recently published a paper (Ann. N.Y. Acad Sci. 958: 293-296, 2002) supporting their findings. Last year doctors attending a conference of the American College for Advancement in Medicine overwhelmingly agreed that vaccines can cause chronic diseases such as diabetes. For the latest information on the effects of vaccines on insulin dependent diabetes and other autoimmune diseases visit the Vaccine Safety Web site.

Autoimmunity August 2002 Vol. 35 (4), pp. 247-253