Legislature(1995 - 1996)
02/12/1996 09:04 AM Senate HES
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SHES - 2/12/96
SB 185 IMMUNIZATION RECORD UPON CHILD'S DEATH
Number 003
CHAIRMAN GREEN called the Senate Health, Education and Social
Services (HESS) Committee to order at 9:04 a.m. and introduced
SB 185 as the first order of business before the committee.
SHERMAN ERNOUF, Staff to Senator Kelly, read the following sponsor
statement:
SB 185 was introduced in response to a growing concern over the
safety of childhood immunizations. For more than a century,
childhood immunizations have been one of the foremost public health
concerns. Immunization of our children has led to the near
elimination of diseases which were once devastatingly fatal.
However, some vaccines including the whooping cough vaccine and the
German measles vaccine typically contain small quantities of
material derived from disease-causing organisms which could
possibly be linked to childhood death or injury.
SB 185 requires the funeral director or the person acting as the
funeral director to include a record of the dates of any
immunizations a deceased child under the age of seven has received
when filling the death certificate. Further, the death certificate
must include the name and type of each vaccine administered, as
well as the name of the vaccine's manufacturer and the lot and
batch number.
If the immunization record cannot be obtained within three days of
death the funeral director shall file the death certificate in
compliance with existing state law and shall continue to make
efforts to obtain the records from the next of kin or other source.
If the records are unavailable from these sources, the funeral
director is required to request the immunization record from the
Immortality Review Committee established by the commissioner of the
Department of Health and Social Services. The committee must
provide this information within 90 days.
There are approximately 125 deaths every year of children under the
age of seven. SB 185 might help to establish a link between
immunizations and childhood death.
Mr. Ernouf emphasized that requiring this information to be
included on the death certificate would allow data to be collected
in order to determine if there is a link between immunizations and
death. He urged the support of the bill.
Number 068
SENATOR LEMAN asked if the statistic, 125 total deaths of children
under seven, included causes of death that were know such as
accidents or does the number represent the total for unknown causes
of death. SHERMAN ERNOUF clarified that the statistic referred to
the total number of deaths in which the cause is unknown; this is
not attributable to accidents.
In response to Senator Salo, SHERMAN ERNOUF said that this
vaccination record would be required for all deaths of children
under the age of seven.
Number 090
ELMER LINDSTROM, Special Assistant to Commissioner Perdue in the
Department of Health & Social Services, said that the department
has concerns with SB 185. There is not a valid scientific purpose
for the collection of this data. Widespread compliance would be
difficult to obtain; Alaska's population is very transient.
Children have 16 to 18 sets of immunizations over seven years which
are often administered by various providers in and out of the state
and in the case of the military, out of the country. Mr. Lindstrom
emphasized that much of the information requested by this bill is
not part of an individual's immunization record, especially the
manufacturer's information. The funeral director would face
difficulties in compiling this information when faced with the
various providers that administered the immunizations. Furthermore,
this information may not even be available. In conclusion, Mr.
Lindstrom stated that requiring the collection of this data is not
feasible. He noted that when a child does die from an
immunization, that is reported on the certificate.
SENATOR SALO asked if other states required that this information
be placed on the death certificate or does the National Institute
of Health (NIH) have any protocol regarding this issue. ELMER
LINDSTROM did not believe that this approach was being utilized in
any other states. Mr. Lindstrom did not have information regarding
the protocol of NIH, but could look into it. Mr. Lindstrom noted
the fiscal note on file.
Number 156
SENATOR LEMAN asked Mr. Lindstrom if the statistic of 125 deaths of
children under age seven included accidents. ELMER LINDSTROM
believed that the statistic represented all deaths from all causes
in the state on a yearly basis. SENATOR LEMAN requested that Mr.
Lindstrom review that statistic in order to clarify what it
signifies. What are the total number of deaths, and of those how
many are medically explainable?
CHAIRMAN GREEN asked if there were any records kept on those deaths
that have a direct correlation to vaccines. ELMER LINDSTROM said
that he did not have that information. In a conversation with the
division he was informed that when there is a cause and effect
established between a vaccine and a death, the death is recorded as
such. CHAIRMAN GREEN clarified that she was referring to those
children that live. ELMER LINDSTROM did not know.
Number 200
MEAD TREADWELL, testifying from Anchorage, said that he was
testifying in memory of his son, who died at the age of nine weeks
after immunizations and a case of thrush. He pointed out that at
the time of his son's death, in 1993, there was no protocol in
place to collect information regarding such deaths. Mr. Treadwell
gave the following reasons for supporting SB 185:
(1) Medicine evolves. Without the information to do the
study, medicine cannot evolve very well.
(2) Many cases upon review of the history of deaths has
improved medicine. He discussed various studies which
illustrate this point.
(3) Data is becoming cheaper.
Mr. Treadwell said that the government is probably best at
collecting information. He was interested in data being utilized
in order to help preserve and better life. The department may view
the collection of this data as without a valid purpose now, but
perhaps later it could be utilized to help medicine evolve. In
conclusion, Mr. Treadwell commended SB 185.
Number 276
SANDY MINTZ, testifying from Anchorage, supported SB 185. She
noted that she had sent the committee considerable evidence of the
data illustrating that the use of vaccinations is inadequate. In
the Congressionally mandated review of the safety of childhood
vaccinations, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported that they
had been handicapped by the lack of good data. SB 185 would show
if there is clustering of death at the time of vaccination. There
is reason to believe there would be such clustering because the IOM
did find, in spite of spotty data, that there is enough data to
make a causal connection between antiphylaxic shock and the
whooping cough, measles, and hepatitis B vaccine. She stated that
children do die from vaccines; the question is how many children
die. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) found that
in one 19 month period, 2,525 serious adverse vaccine associated
reactions were reported including 350 deaths. VAERS is a passive
reporting system. Under an active surveillance system such as a
post marketing surveillance system, the VAERS data would then
report over 120,000 serious reactions including 18,000 deaths would
have been identified in that 19 month period using a vaccine
manufacturers estimate. Ms. Mintz emphasized that if only 10
percent of those were later assumed to be caused by vaccinations,
that would still equal over 10,000 serious adverse vaccination
reactions with almost 2,000 deaths. She urged helping Alaska's
children by supporting SB 185. She added that anyone interested in
a copy of the NBC program which reported that the FDA was not
recalling bad lots of the DPT vaccine, even when as many as 10
children had died per lot and over 100 had been seriously damaged
per bad vaccine lot, can contact her. In response to Senator Salo,
Sandy Mintz clarified that VAERS is a congressionally mandated
passive reporting system.
SENATOR SALO asked if Alaska participates in VAERS. SANDY MINTZ
replied yes and noted that VAERS is voluntary. Ms. Mintz pointed
out that the individual must make the connection between the
vaccination and the reaction and then choose to report it or the
doctor can report it. Ms. Mintz indicated that doctors are often
not cooperative when presented with this connection which leads to
the notion that the problem is vastly under-reported.
Number 330
HARRY GREGSON, testifying from Anchorage, related his experience
with his first daughter. In the night after her DPT shot at two
months old, she went into respiratory distress and after many
efforts she died the next morning in the hospital. Mr. Gregson
informed the emergency room physician, the pediatrician, and the
hematologist that the DPT shot had been the only variance in the
day. All those physicians told Mr. Gregson that there was no
connection to her problems and the DPT shot and discouraged the
pursuit of this idea. Two months after her death, 60 Minutes aired
a program about this issue which prompted Mr. Gregson to interview
all attending physicians of his daughter. Mr. Gregson was told
that the DPT vaccination was not connected to his daughter's death.
Mr. Gregson began his own research and found much material
regarding DPT shots and there damage to children. After much
research and education on the subject, those who had refuted Mr.
Gregson's connection between the DPT vaccine and his daughter's
death now agreed with his conclusion. Following that, he and many
other families in similar situations received compensation. Mr.
Gregson believed that the monetary compensation illustrated the
government's interest in correcting this issue, but it has been
quite the contrary. SB 185 is a small step.
Number 392
DR. ARCHIE KALOKERINOS, testifying from Australia, informed the
committee that he had graduated in Medicine & Surgery from the
University of Sydney in 1951. He discussed his medical practice
which began in 1957 in Collarenebri where he faced an extremely
high infant mortality rate. For example, during one 24 hour period
three caucasian infants died.
Dr. Kalokerinos discussed other children who seemed to be well or
experiencing a trivial illness who would then be found dead or
suffering unexplained shock from which they could not be
resuscitated. Others developed extreme irritability sometimes
resembling meningitis or encephalitis followed by unconsciousness
and death. All the tests of standard disease administered during
autopsies were negative except for the presence of yellow patches
in the liver in some cases. Before death, these infants had
displayed symptoms of liver pain and tenderness to varying degrees.
Dr. Kalokerinos said that all other doctors in Australia denied
that these problems and observations existed. He was told that
this did not occur anywhere else in Australia. Years later Dr.
Kalokerinos learned that the problem was widespread in Australia,
particularly in aboriginal communities. Dr Kalokerinos asserted
that he was either deliberately misinformed some while others could
not recognize the situation. Dr. Kalokerinos noted that such an
epidemic had also occurred in Naples, Italy in the late 1970s. One
third of those infants and children had recently receive routine
childhood vaccines. Eventually Dr. Kalokerinos discovered that if
administered early, intramuscular intravenous injections of vitamin
C could reverse the shock and unconscious state. The infant
mortality rate of infants under Dr. Kalokerinos' care dropped
dramatically. Other doctors following this method acheived similar
results.
Dr. Kalokerinos said that he learned that routine immunization had
an awful effect on some infants for weeks after receiving the
immunization. Some infants appeared to suffer from immune
paralysis and contacted serious bacterial infections. Others, in
the up to two week period following a vaccination, would go into
sudden unexplained shock or excessive irritability state followed
by unconsciousness. Those states could be reversed with the
administration of intravenous vitamin C. Bacterial infections are
more difficult to control. It became more obvious that the
percusses component of the vaccine was the most serious.
Therefore, when a vaccinated child was reached during the period of
illness, the percusses component was often exploded and all vitamin
supplements were increased in doses. All the sick infants received
vitamin C. Dr. Kalokerinos informed the committee that in NSW,
records are kept of all vaccines administered and a copy is in the
possession of the parents.
CHAIRMAN GREEN requested that Dr. Kalokerinos fax his written
testimony to the committee.
Number 460
DR. ARTHUR ZAHARSKY, testifying from Illinois, informed the
committee that he was a Professor of Immunology at Southern
Illinois University. He posed the following question: why do some
children respond adversely to the precusses component of the
vaccine and others do not? He pointed out that in the manufacture
of the vaccine the whooping cough or precusses component represents
an intact bacteria containing biologically active toxin molecules.
Those molecules are injected into the bodies of infants. Dr.
Zaharsky stated that this vaccine is unpredictably unsafe. The
principle toxins are present in unmeasured quantities and available
to the biological systems of the infant at the particular state of
nutrition, and the particular state of growth and development of
the child.
Dr. Zaharsky noted that public health officials in Alaska with whom
he visited in 1994 did perform appropriate surveys. However, the
problem with some of the surveys is the inability to distinguish
between children receiving one or more injections of the vaccine
and who have then been withdrawn from further injections because of
an adverse response to a particular injection of the vaccine.
Those children are not entered into the pool of data which reflects
what happens to all infants. Dr. Zaharsky explained that these
children are placed on an alternative vaccine which does not
contain the whooping cough component or they are withdrawn from
further vaccinations all together. Therefore, the current data is
flawed due to the quality of the data. SB 185 would reveal for
those children who come to autopsy, if there are a syndrome of
features that would illustrate the biological action of the toxin
molecules within the body. This could attribute a child's death to
the known multiple effects that the toxin molecules have within
some children. He urged the committee to support SB 185 in order
to provide evidence for use of a better and safer vaccine known as
booster shots. This acellular vaccine has a significantly reduced
component of the biologically active toxin molecules.
Number 516
CHAIRMAN GREEN added that she too had a similar experience with her
eldest son. She explained that had she put her son to bed when she
went home after the vaccine, he too would have died. Fortunately,
she realized what was happening and rushed her son back and he was
resuscitated and lived. Chairman Green inquired as to the
committee's preference on whether to wait for the additional
information or pass it to the next committee where the information
could be presented.
SENATOR LEMAN did not know how important having the batch number of
the vaccine on the death certificate would actually be, but he did
realize the batch number's importance in tracing the batches.
CHAIRMAN GREEN believed that information was often included. She
indicated that the information is in the records in the doctor's
office. She did not believe this would be much of a problem.
Moreover, the military surely keeps the information in the
individual's record.
SENATOR SALO asked if the information the committee wanted was the
number of deaths of children under seven. CHAIRMAN GREEN replied
yes.
SENATOR SALO said that she would like to know that information.
She suggested that this information could be required on any death
certificate when there is any doubt about the cause of death.
CHAIRMAN GREEN held SB 185 until the requested information was
obtained. She announced that there would be a Joint HESS meeting
on Wednesday in order to hear an overview of the Alaska Native
Health Board.
SENATOR LEMAN requested that Dr. Zaharsky send his testimony in to
the committee as well.
There being no further business before the committee, the meeting
was adjourned at 9:46 a.m.
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