Diseases And Disorders

"During the 1960s and early 1970s health workers applied epidemiologic methods to eradicate smallpox worldwide. This was an achievement of unprecedented proportions for applied epidemiology."

"One of the first accounts of variolation — an ancient form of smallpox prevention — was from an 11th century Buddhist nun, who blew ground smallpox scabs into the noses of her patients."

"Today’s best known vaccination success story is the global campaign of the World Health Organization (WHO) to eradicate smallpox. In 1967, the WHO began its coordination of 200,000 health workers who took 10 years to vaccinate the world’s population in its remotest corners. Between 1976 and 1979, only one case of smallpox was recorded, leading to the declaration in 1980 that smallpox had been officially eradicated (Plate 14-1). A similar global immunization program against rinderpest is currently pushing this pathogen toward extinction (Box 14-2)."

"We used to think, for example, that smallpox vaccine gave you a permanent immunity just like the disease does. Actually it doesn't. It falls. ... The same with yellow fever vaccine. I don't know how many years. That's never been quite worked out, although it's a longer-lasting immunity than just giving a dead antigen."

"During the French Indian War, General George Washington was convinced that his most formidable for was smallpox and he subjected his men to forced variolation to stop its spread. Many of the soldiers had only mild reactions, but some became seriously ill and died. The European press, especially among the antivaccine society, bitterly criticized Washington for forcing his men into possible harm without their consent, Hessian soldiers, who fought alongside the British, were captured and imprisoned in Frederick, Maryland, where they may have been subjected to variolation experimentation-a safety precaution before Washington would order to the procedure for his own army."

"The history of medical research and human experimentation reveals both great successes and horrible abuses. Plagues like smallpox were rampant and capable of wiping out entire cities. People were desperate for relief and would try anything that could help ward off the horrible plagues, even experimenting. English aristocrat Lady Mary Wortley Montague introduced the idea of variolation to the gentry in 1715. In variolation, ooze from the sores of smallpox victims with mild cases was scratched into the skin. During the French the Indian War, General George Washington was convinced that his most formidable for was smallpox and he subjected his men to forced variolation to stop its spread. Many of the soldiers had only mil reactions, but some became seriously ill and died. The European press, especially among the antivaccine society, bitterly criticized Washington for forcing his men into possible harm without their consent, Hessian soldiers, who fought alongside the British, were captured and imprisoned in Frederick, Maryland, where they may have been subjected to variolation experimentation—a safety precaution before Washington would order to the procedure for his own army. When British physician Edward Jenner (1749-1823) introduced the use of cowpox sores to make a vaccine against smallpox, he was subjected to the same criticism. In the 1700s principles of individualism, self-determination, and consent of the governed formed the establishment of the United States. Ethicists all this idea the principle of “respect for persons.” Therefore, informed consent is a human right and an outgrowth of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

"Military research programs throughout history have made significant contributions to medicine and, in particular, to vaccine development. These efforts have been driven primarily by the effects of infectious disease on military conflicts: smallpox devastated the Continental Army in 1776, as well as troops on both sides of the United States Civil War; typhoid fever was common among soldiers in the Spanish American War. More person-days were lost among U.S. soldiers in malaria-endemic regions to malaria than to bullets throughout the entire 20th century; indeed, malaria continues to sap military strength into the current century."

"In the United States, state policies mandate certain immunizations, including school entry requirements, which cover significant numbers of children. The first school vaccination requirements were enacted in the 1850s to prevent smallpox."

"Steve Cochi, a paediatrician and senior adviser to the CDC’s global-immunization division, is especially frustrated by measles’s global toll, because from a biological and technical standpoint, he says, the disease could be eradicated. Unlike Ebola, yellow fever or (probably) the new coronavirus, it has no animal host, and a cheap and effective vaccine exists."

"Measles is a density-dependent disease that requires a population of about 300,000 to maintain itself and was unknown in many rural areas of the world until they were “invaded” by town dwellers."

"The recognition, diagnosis, and successful treatment of cancer patients with pneumonia remain pervasive and complex clinical challenges. Despite major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia in general, mortality rates for cancer-related pulmonary infection remain high."

"“Pretty much name any country and you will find measles there,” says Robb Linkins, a measles specialist in the global immunization division at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and chair of the Measles & Rubella Initiative, a partnership of five organizations."

", my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything. “Are you feeling all right?” I asked her. “I feel all sleepy, ” she said. In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead. The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her... ...I dedicated two of my books to Olivia, the first was James and the Giant Peach. That was when she was still alive. The second was The BFG, dedicated to her... after she had died... You will see her name at the beginning of each of these books. And I know how happy she would be if only she could know that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children."

"Of the density-dependent diseases, measles requires a population of about half a million to become endemic, and the others probably less; in other words, while no city in Greece could support smallpox, it could certainly have become established in Rome."

"In 2010, the WHO’s key Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) declared that measles can and should be eradicated, but it stopped short of recommending a target date. Since then, advocates have been lobbying the WHO to launch a global measles-eradication campaign and set a date for completion, as it did for smallpox and polio. At a meeting last October, however, SAGE recommended a different tack: instead of setting eradication deadlines that would be difficult to meet, the group advised waiting until success is actually in sight — say, 5 years away — before pushing full-bore to wipe out the disease. Doing so would require boosting rates of routine immunization with two doses of measles vaccine to a level never achieved before. The DRC is one of about 20 countries that have yet to add the second dose to its regime. And even that wouldn’t be enough. Eradication would also depend on improving the quality of mass campaigns and bringing in an easier-to-use vaccine. Those goals are very far away, measles experts say."

"... Rosen et al. in 1990, reported 12 patients with intraocular tuberculosis, 9 of whom presented with retinal vasculitis, 2 with choroidal tubercles, and 1 with chronic anterior uveitis ... In a prospective study from Spain, Bouza et al. examined 100 randomly selected patients from a population of 300 patients with proven systemic tuberculosis ... Ocular involvement was diagnosed in 18 patients (18%). Choroidal involvement was present in all but one of these, and retinal involvement was found in 6 patients."

"During the period 1960–1980, with lower incidences and decreasing trends, TB ceased to be pursued actively as a research subject in several western countries. However, it continued to be a focus of research in developing countries, especially in India, where TB was and continues to be a major health burden. The late Prof. M. Sirsi is acknowledged to have initiated TB research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, one of the premier institutions of India."

"Tuberculosis is the most prevalent bacterial infectious disease in humans and the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, ranking above HIV/AIDS. The causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is carried by an estimated two billion people globally and claims more than 1.5 million lives each year. Tuberculosis rates are significantly higher in men than in women, reflected by a male-to-female ratio for worldwide case notifications of 1.7. This phenomenon is not new and has been reported in various countries and settings over the last century. However, the reasons for the observed gender bias are not clear, potentially highly complex and discussed controversially in the literature."

"Tuberculosis is one of the classical afflictions of city life associated with poverty, overcrowding, malnutrition, and industrial stress. It often occurs when there is transition from a rural to urban life."

"I don't have delusions of grandeur, I have an actual recipe for grandeur."

"According to the Crick-Mitchison theory of the biological function of rapid eye movement sleep, normal brain development in the fetus and infant depends on undisrupted function of a ‘reverse learning’ mechanism during rapid eye movement sleep. Could abnormalities in this hypothetical reverse learning during rapid eye movement sleep in the fetus explain some aspects of the autistic syndromes? Does the Crick-Mitchison theory suggest if a drug could interfere with rapid eye movement sleep and cross the placental barrier, then that drug might cause developmental brain disorders in the fetus? Should all pregnant women completely avoid caffeine or any agent that might disrupt serotonergic or cholinergic systems?"

"Rationale for Treatment with LSD and UML Our interest in these drugs was due in part to their psychotomimetic effect, hoping thereby that the autistic defenses of schizophrenic children might be broken down. Of equal interest, on a theoretical basis, is the serotonin inhibiting effect and of greater interest is their effect on the autonomic and central nervous system. Brodie has described the effects of LSD and other hallucinogenic agents as "arousal and increased responsiveness to sensory stimuli, preponderance of sympathetic activity and increased skeletal muscle tone and activity." Of particular interest is their tonic effect on the vascular bed especially of the brain, as has been shown with UML in vascular headaches. The known effects of these drugs on perception further increases their interest in the treatment of schizophrenia. Such drugs were of interest to us for the treatment of childhood schizophrenia since our definition of this condition is a disorder in maturation characterized by an embryonic primitive plasticity in all areas of integrative brain functioning from which behavior subsequently arises. This includes all autonomic functions, perception, emotion, intelligence. It was hoped that 'these drugs might prove some-what specific in modifying the basic process as well as the secondary symptoms. Autism is seen as a withdrawal or denial defense against disturbing sensations arising from disturbed autonomic function and perceptual function and anxiety in the young child with lagging and atypical maturation. It was hoped that this autism might be disrupted and that more normal autonomic functions in the vascular bed, brain, intestines, skin and other organs as well as in perception would permit more normal development."

"I've researched autism for more than a decade. Specifically, I've investigated how some antibodies in expecting mothers could complicate fetal development and lead to the condition. Through all my research and that of my colleagues, one thing is clear: Vaccines are not the cause of autism. And yet, that connection is on the tip of many tongues."

""Vaccine scares" have existed ever since the first smallpox vaccine was developed. Religious beliefs and distrust in medicine dissuaded some from inoculations; others believed they violated their personal liberty. Legally mandating vaccines in the mid-19 century galvanized these objectors into anti-vaccine movements, members of which claimed the right to make their own decisions about their children's bodies and their own. The autism variant of these historical conspiracy theories started in 1998 with a report in a prestigious medical journal suggesting that 12 children developed autism shortly after they received the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine. But the findings were plagued with problems: The research of the lead scientist was funded by a lawyer suing a vaccine manufacturer, while the researcher himself held a patent for a new MMR vaccine. He altered the children's medical histories to boot. Since then, scores of medical research findings have invalidated the report, and the researcher's license was revoked."

"It was in Nazi-occupied Austria that autism was coined as a diagnosis. While the term had been coined by the eugenicist and psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler in 1911, Bleuler only meant it to refer to a temporary symptom of schizophrenia. It was only under Nazi rule, in the work of Hans Asperger in the 1930s and 1940s that those who came to be called autistic were singled out as having a unique way of being. During a war where men were expected to express a 'soldier mentality' and to be part of the group, boys who failed to fit this economic requirement were singled out as pathological (it was mostly boys who got the diagnosis) and were baptized with a new name: autism. Those women who were diagnosed were also singled out if they had intellectual disabilities, since they were not seen as fit to reproduce."

"In this context, Hans Asperger and other medics began dividing autistics up into those deemed to have potential worth to the Third Reich given their purportedly strong logical capacities, and those who were to be sterilized or killed along with countless other mad and disabled targets."

"Some autistic people employ strategies and behaviours to cope with the everyday social world, thereby ‘camouflaging’ their autistic differences and difficulties. ... While significant variation was noted across individual study findings, much of the existing literature supported three preliminary findings about the nature of autistic camouflaging: (1) adults with more self-reported autistic traits report greater engagement in camouflaging; (2) sex and gender differences exist in camouflaging; and (3) higher self-reported camouflaging is associated with worse mental health outcomes."

"Facial emotion perception is significantly affected in autism spectrum disorder, yet little is known about how individuals with autism spectrum disorder misinterpret facial expressions that result in their difficulty in accurately recognizing emotion in faces. This study examined facial emotion perception in 45 verbal adults with autism spectrum disorder and 30 age- and gender-matched volunteers without autism spectrum disorder to identify patterns of emotion misinterpretation during face processing that contribute to emotion recognition impairments in autism. Results revealed that difficulty distinguishing emotional from neutral facial expressions characterized much of the emotion perception impairments exhibited by participants with autism spectrum disorder. In particular, adults with autism spectrum disorder uniquely misinterpreted happy faces as neutral, and were significantly more likely than typical volunteers to attribute negative valence to nonemotional faces. The over-attribution of emotions to neutral faces was significantly related to greater communication and emotional intelligence impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. These findings suggest a potential negative bias toward the interpretation of facial expressions and may have implications for interventions designed to remediate emotion perception in autism spectrum disorder."

"Autistics are solitary people that need space from others in general. Public Housing does not provide this sort of housing as a general rule, and this has to change."

"If by some magic, autism had been eradicated from the face of the earth, then men would still be socializing in front of a wood fire at the entrance to a cave."

"The effort to cure autism, [autism right advocates] say, is not like curing cancer, but like the efforts of a previous age to cure left-handedness."

"A major cause of the recent large increase in the number of boys diagnosed with autism probably is due to changing diagnostic practices."

"Even those autistic people who are religious tend to formulate their religious beliefs in a way that aligns more closely with their natural propensity for concrete reasoning, or they focus on finding comfort in rituals and traditions more than theology. Instead of embracing traditional concepts of a humanlike deity involved in the creation and moral governance of the universe, they often perceive divinity as an embodiment of universal laws, a perspective that veers toward pantheism or pandeism rather than classical deism. Their god is usually not a conscious, purposeful creator but more an expression of nature itself or the laws of physics."

"Thimerosal is a controversial mercury based (sic) vaccine preservative that research scientists and vaccine safety advocates have connected to the epidemic of brain disorders (Autism) in children."

"One of the things that I think affected me was in primary school when I got the diagnosis. In primary school I got bullied. The programs were all about how socially you have to be able to stand up for yourself or whatever. The implied thing with that, in my opinion, was that it was saying that if you do not behave in the right way, you are asking to be bullied... When I went out of primary school there was less bullying, because I was able to go to the library and I actually found other autistic people to hang out with, which was good. But there are still issues that arise from it, like anxiety."

"Indirect evidence for an environmental contribution to autism comes from studies demonstrating the sensitivity of the developing brain to external exposures such as lead, ethyl alcohol and methyl mercury. But the most powerful proof-of-concept evidence derives from studies specifically linking autism to exposures in early pregnancy – thalidomide, misoprostol, and valproic acid; maternal rubella infection; and the organophosphate insecticide, chlorpyrifos. There is no credible evidence that vaccines cause autism."

"The reason why the medical community doesn't support is because us moms aren't treating autism, we are treating a vaccine injury."

"It's [Autism has] prevented me from making a living or ever having a girlfriend. It's given me bad fine motor coordination problems where I can hardly write. I have an impaired ability to relate to people. I can't concentrate or get things done."

"But [not accomplishing] that does not stop me from wishing for a cure for future generations of children so they will not have to live like I have."

"Hopefully on my tombstone they will write, ‘We don't need no stinkin’ neurodiversity'."

"In America we've spent over a billion dollars on autism research. What have we got for that? We've not seen anything that's appreciably impacted the quality of life of autistic people, regardless of their place on the spectrum. Quite frankly, we've spent $1bn figuring out how to make mice autistic and we'll spend another $1bn figuring out how to make them not autistic. And that's not what the average person wakes up in the morning aspiring to. They think: am I going to be able to find a job, to communicate, to live independently, either on my own or with support? Those are the real priorities."

"Diversity in the workplace is way more than different races and religions disability affects people of different races and religious beliefs too. Employers need to realise this and think outside the box when considering employing people. Australia is one of the worst in the OECD for disability employment 21 out of 25 countries. We put more effort to being the best in sports in than [sic]looking after people with disability if only the effort put on that instead the benefits across the board would be massive."

"The bottom line is that because autism is a behaviorally, i.e., dimensionally defined, diagnosis, its classification is based on agreed-upon cut-off criteria along a behavioral continuum, not on dichotomous biologically based criteria. For all these reasons, prevalence figures are and will continue to remain approximate and disputed."

"While autism is a developmental disorder, sometimes a devastating one, there is always within the autism a unique and sometimes strangely gifted individual. The great psychoanalyst Winicott used to feel that there was something like a tulip in every person and this was their essence and that this internal part of them was inaccessible to the person themselves and should not be meddled with or touched by psychoanalysis or anything else and one wonders if there is not some autistic essence like this tulip which needs to be respected and not meddled with."

"When parents say,"

"You didn't lose a child to autism. You lost a child because the child you waited for never came into existence. That isn't the fault of the autistic child who does exist, and it shouldn't be our burden. We need and deserve families who can see us and value us for ourselves, not families whose vision of us is obscured by the ghosts of children who never lived. Grieve if you must, for your own lost dreams. But don't mourn for us. We are alive. We are real. And we're here waiting for you."

"I really hate any functioning labels whatsoever, because they do not represent individuals. High functioning just means without an intellectual disability. There is nothing more to it. If you want to talk about yourself or your child and your strengths and weaknesses, you focus on your strengths and weaknesses because that is going to tell the person more about you than the words ‘high’ or ‘low’ functioning. So I encourage every school and everybody I meet to not use that, because it does not give you any information. Does ‘high’ or ‘low’ tell you how to help the child or the adult? No, it does not."

"Massive combined inoculations to small children is the cause for big increase in autism"

"Thirty years ago it seemed right that there be no stigma in education and that everyone should get the same start in life, but there are problems in mixing everyone together. I was never happy about the inclusion of children with severe autistic problems in schools, for example, and I certainly don't think it is working today."

"…realizing how my co-morbids are just damned hard for me and confusing to others has helped me chill out about their frustration…in real-time processing I had no idea other people were being so effected by my chaos. I do feel I unreasonably expected people to work from my ‘normality’ without having to explain it to them or help them adapt."