Report Your Child's Vaccine Related Autism to the NVIC
February 16, 2001
Dear Parents of Autistic Children:
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have asked the
Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academy of Sciences, to ssemble a physician committee to study
and analyze emerging vaccine safety issues.
http://www.iom.edu/IOM/IOMHome.nsf/Pages/immunization+safety+review The first subject the new
IOM Immunization Safety Review Committee will examine is the hypothesis that there is a causal
relationship between MMR or measles vaccine and autism. The Committee will meet March 8-10, 2001 in
Washington, D.C. with an open public meeting on March 8.
Past IOM Committees Studied Vaccine Safety: This is the sixth committee IOM has assembled to look
at vaccine safety issues in the past two decades. The National Vaccine Information Center, (NVIC)
founded by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982, supported a provision in the 1986 National
Childhood Vaccine Injury Act in which Congress asked the IOM to review the medical literature for
scientific evidence for a causal relationship between childhood vaccines and immune and neurological
dysfunction. NVIC assisted IOM committees in the early 1990's by providing information about vaccine
reactions for their deliberations. Four landmark reports were published by IOM in 1991 and 1994
describing adverse events associated with childhood vaccines.
In 1995, the IOM established a Vaccine Safety Forum and, as an appointed member, I helped
coordinate five public workshops on vaccine safety issues. IOM published four reports on the Vaccine
Safety Forum workshops. Copies of IOM reports on vaccine safety since 1991 can be obtained by
calling 1-800-624-6242 or on-line at http://www.iom.edu/IOM/IOMHome.nsf/Pages/iom+vaccine+studies
You can also review my presentation to the new IOM Immunization Safety Review Committee on January
11, 2001 at their first meeting by going to NVIC's website at http://www.nvic.org
YOUR REPORT TO TO NVIC VACCINE REACTION REGISTRY IMPORTANT: NVIC has been asked to facilitate the
providing of vaccine reaction case history information concerning MMR or measles vaccine-associated
autism for consideration by the new IOM Committeee. Since 1982, NVIC has received thousands of
reports of vaccine-related neuroimmune dysfunction, including MMR vaccine-related autism. Every case
report documenting vaccine-associated brain and immune system dysfunction is critically important
and should be included in NVIC's national Vaccine Reaction Registry.
IF YOUR CHILD EXPERIENCED REGRESSION FOLLOWING VACCINATION AND MMR OR MEASLES VACCINE WAS RELATED
TO YOUR CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT OF AUTISM, PLEASE GO TO NVIC'S WEBSITE
https://www.nvic.org/reaction.htm AND IMMEDIATELY MAKE A REPORT. No personally identifying
information will be provided to IOM or anyone else without your permission. This has always been
NVIC's policy regarding information on vaccine-related adverse events reported to NVIC.
In describing what happened to your child, be sure to state: (1) if your child experienced
previous reactions to other vaccines and/or deterioration in health BEFORE the MMR or measles
vaccination associated with the development of autism; (2) if your child was sick with an infection
of any kind at the time of vaccination; (3) if there is a personal or family history of autoimmunity
or neurological disorders such as thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, colitis, multiple
sclerosis, epilepsy, etc.
As NVIC prepares to collate past and present case history information of vaccine-associated
autism in the US and provide non-identifying information to IOM, no vaccine reaction case report
should be left out. NVIC's database on vaccine reactions has served for two decades as an
independent vaccine adverse event reporting mechanism counterbalancing the government's Vaccine
Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and is generating information which will contribute to a
better understanding of the relationship between vaccination and autism.
Please go to NVIC's website at http://www.nvic.org and register your child's vaccine-related
development of autism today.
Very truly yours, Barbara Loe Fisher Co-founder and President National Vaccine Information Center
|