Is there a link between autism and thimerosal, the mercury based preservative in some vaccines?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Posted by Jennifer Taggart

Many parents believe that the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, which has been used in vaccines and is still present in flu vaccine not packaged as single doses, can cause autism and other neurological disorders. This belief persists, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, among others, do not believe that thimerosal puts children at risk.

The debate has been contentious over the last several years. The debate heated up last month when the Office of Special Masters of the Court of Federal Claims (the vaccine court) found that Hannah Poling’s brain damage and autistic behavior were caused by her exposure to multiple vaccinations on one day that set off an underlying rare mitochondrial disorder.

Hannah Poling’s circumstances may have been unusual. However, parents seeking vindication are looking to the “vaccine court” in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A hearing on two additional test cases started yesterday. The test cases will provide the basis for handling the almost 5,000 similar claims brought by parents who assert that their children suffered autism and similar neurological disorders as a result of one or more vaccines.

Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of Health and member of Institute of Medicine, suggests that it may not be the mercury-based preservative as much as the mercury-based preservative coupled with certain susceptibilities. In an interview with CBS yesterday, Dr. Healy stated that “… susceptible children, perhaps genetically, perhaps a metabolic issue, a mitochondrial disorder, immunological issue, that makes them more susceptible to vaccines plural, or to one particular vaccine, or to a component of a vaccine like mercury. We have to now… take another look at that hypothesis. Not deny it.“

Dr. Healy, in a position at odds with many in the Institute of Medicine, stated that, “The government and certain public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the concerns of these families without studying the population who got sick . . . They don’t want to pursue the hypothesis because that hypothesis could scare people. I don’t believe the truth ever scares people.”