Hep B Vaccine and link to MS

[tot_teacher]

Please give me your understanding of the correlation between MS/MS symptoms and the Hepatitis B Vaccine.

I worked in the medical field and received the vaccination approximately +/- 1 year prior to the onset of neurological symptoms.  Am I correct in thinking that scientists somewhere believe there may be a connection.

[Quixotic1]

This concern was brought up by the French in the mid-90's and they stopped giving the Hep B vaccine for a while.  The concern was with regard to adolescents, I believe.  The other nations of Europe (and the US, of course) looked hard at the data and found no correlation.  We're talking millions of doses so there was a LOT of data.

I would have to check, but I believe that France resumed its vaccination schedule.  There are some commonalities between the genetics of MS and that of Hep B, so the question was legitimate, but hard scientific research does not hold up a link between the vaccination and our disease.

Of course, the anti-vaccination people that you can find on the internet still warn of this now-disproven "connection."  But, they also still warn about the (not) "connection" between autism and the MMR.  That "link" has been debunked not only by data analysis, but also in the criminal fraud connection between Wakefield - the British researcher who claimed the connection - and the personal injury law firm that was handling the vast majority of the lawsuits in England.

I must say that I am a staunch believer in vaccinations.  I have watched children die or been severely disabled by almost all of the diseases for which we vaccinate.  Every time large groups of people stop the vaccinations we see a localized resurgence of the disease and deaths  (best examples, measles, pertussis, and HIB).  We just had another death this year in the US from a secondary case of measles transmitted by a child who's mom refused immunizations.  I say this from the standpoint not only of a pediatrician, but also from someone who did her post- doc work in Immunology.

Ooops....Soapbox....OFF!

Quix