The Long Term Evidence for Vaccines

indigo girl · Dec 11, 2009

http://www.newsweek.com/id/226097

If a woman is exposed to influenza while pregnant, or if an unvaccinated child gets the flu in his or her first year of life, the baby's developing brain may be severely damaged by the virus. Analysis of medical records of Americans who were born in the late '50s and early '60s shows that having the mother catch the flu while pregnant increased the chance her child would later develop schizophrenia. It's not a trivial difference: the children of moms who had flu midway during their pregnancies were as much as eight times more likely to become schizophrenic.
Overall, prenatal and infant exposure to influenza is strongly associated with cognitive failures. Babies are born with brains and immune systems that are still developing, and will not be hard-wired and strong until their second year of life. Scientists are increasingly discovering links between viral infections during those precious times, and psychiatric problems ranging from lifelong depression to acute learning deficits. In utero or infancy infection with chickenpox doubles the risk of cerebral palsy, according to Australian researchers. Having rubella during pregnancy increases by 80 percent the chances of severe birth defects in that mother's child, including small brains and hearts, blindness, deafness, and severe learning deficits.
Influenza in utero or in the first year of a child's life is a major cause of adult cardiovascular disease--heart attacks and strokes. People who suffered influenza during the Great Pandemic of 1918-19 were 20 percent more likely to develop heart disease as adults. To put that in perspective, having a "bad cholesterol count" of more than 240mg confers a 20 percent elevated risk of heart attacks, according to the American Heart Association.

(hat tip Avian Flu Diary)

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20091001/Fetal-exposure-to-H1N1-flu-can-increase-risk-of-heart-disease.aspx

The articles regarding influenza as a possible factor in schizophrenia do not always agree as I looked

into this a bit further.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090609073032.htm

http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/sbp147v1

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/06/10/risk-of-schizophrenia-linked-to-prenatal-health/6417.html

A new study in the June 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier suggests that the observed association depends upon a pre-existing vulnerability in the fetus.
Specifically, Dr. Lauren Ellman and colleagues determined that fetal exposure to influenza leads to cognitive problems at age 7 among children who later develop a psychotic disorder in adulthood, but fetal exposure to influenza does not lead to cognitive problems among children who do not later develop a psychotic disorder.
It is important to note that these results were dependent upon the type of influenza, with this association present only after fetal exposure to influenza B as opposed to influenza A.