LYMErix FRAUD... Pamela Weintraub is a former staff writer at Discover, former editor-in-chief of Omni Internet, and the author of 15 books on health and science.

2006-03-15 07:33:04 AM
ANA: Neurological Impairment Seen in Patients Given Lymerix Lyme
Disease Vaccine
By Ed Susman
Special to Doctor's Guide News
NEW YORK, NY -- October 16, 2002 -- Doctors treating patients at the
Peripheral Neuropathy Center of Cornell-New York Hospital have
identified nine people with neuropathies or encephalopathies linked to
vaccination with Lymerix.
Howard Sander, MD, associate professor of clinical neurology at the
Weill Medical School at Cornell, said the patients treated represent
only those with neurological complications of the vaccine, which was
taken off the market due to several reports of various side effects
after being administered to more than a million people.
In a presentation here October 15 at the 127th annual meeting of the
American Neurological Association (ANA), researchers reviewed those
neurological cases.
Dr. Anita Wu, MD, a fellow in neurology at the hospital and lead author
of the poster study, said four patients were being treated for
neuropathies; four for encephalopathies and one patient appeared to
have both neuropathy and encephalopathy complaints.
"We are not certain whether the patients developed these conditions
from the vaccine or possibly from Borrelia burgdorferi infection," she
said. B. burgdorferi is the bacterium that is transmitted by infected
ticks to humans, causing a wide spectrum of symptoms, from rash to
neurological impairment.
Dr. Sander noted that the investigators have only been tracking these
neurological complications for a year. "We want to put it on the map
that the vaccine can be linked to these conditions. This is just the
tip of the iceberg," she said.
Dr. Armin Alaedini, PhD, also a fellow in neurology and another
co-author of the study, noted that in hearings before the Food and Drug
Administration many individuals reported a variety of symptoms
following Lymerix vaccination.
The researchers scrutinised the genetic sequencing of key amino acids
found in the patients and in various databases. They said their work
considered that the neurological sequelae of Lymerix vaccination, and
possibly chronic Lyme disease, might be caused by molecular mimicry,
resulting from reactions to part of the vaccine proteins.
Dr. Wu said one patient suffering from a neuropathy had responded to
standard treatments. She said that the presentation did not receive any
outside funding.
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