Host: As also in the news today that oh, there is about 5,000 people suing the makers of vaccines claiming vaccines that are cause of their autism. But as we know as pediatricians that isn't true. We've already carefully reviewed all the cases we can't find any evidence based faces, is that true?
Henry Joseph Hasson: Yeah, all kind of research shows that the vaccines really are not the culprit for autism. Autism is probably genetic. There is definitely probably environmental factor that it's not clear at this point exactly what. But a lot of people get excited about mercury and about tuna fish and about all sorts of different things, but the reality is that even tuna fish, there is so little mercury if any in there that, it's not going to cause any problem. The vaccines don't even have mercury in them any more, a lot of that has been taken care of and hasn't affected autism at all.
Host: While in deadlock they took everything out in 1992, and low and behold, the statistic rate went up even higher. We took it up about ten years of virtue, all that become little traced, and our rates eventually are going down, they're going up.
Henry Joseph Hasson: And I understand being cautious, but the problem is, when you start scaring people especially with something like vaccinations where vaccines are probably one of the best medical thing that have ever happened to society and the world, and probably one of the reasons why children are surviving so much better than they did, even 20 and 100 years ago, it's because of vaccination then and getting rid of all of these infections. So a lot of people get nervous and they avoid vaccinating their children, and they are exposing them to a lot more risk than these theories that they are causing more different problems.
Host: Well, a good example, the estimation of kids that get measles, we probably have four million cases a year, and as you are aware as a neurologist, lot of those kids are presumed neurological complications, is that true?
Henry Joseph Hasson: Yeah and by neurological complications, sometimes it can be devastating, where they can have intractable seizures that just can't be controlled, and they can have, and some children can really lose their cognitive abilities, and it could be very scary and even with our vaccination, I mean in the news we hear all the time of these measles outbreaks, even in America around the country. I think in America we've got so comfortable with all the vaccines and the relative low risk of infection of lot of these viruses and bacteria that we take it for granted sometimes, and really we need to be definitely be extra careful on vaccinating our children.
Host: Well, in the 30s we recorded 15,000 tests just whooping cough in babies, and you don't even hear about whooping cough, we see some kids coughing, they have a 100 day cough, and we have limited that. But I am sure there was some HIV meningitis in kids, couple of thousand cases here, and the sequelae from that was terrible. Pneumococcal meningitis is subtle like down to some cases occasionally. In Meningococcal vaccinating older kids those are down, but that's a scary thing in meningitis, isn't it?
Henry Joseph Hasson: Sure, I mean even the most recent -- one of the most recent vaccinations against varicella is chickenpox. A lot of parents say, you know we all had chickenpox, we all turned out and find the chickenpox vaccine. People don't realize that, yes, it doesn't happen to everyone, it's only a minority of people that get chickenpox, but eventually they get a lot of neurological problems from varicella, from the virus itself later on in life, and with the chickenpox vaccine you can hopefully avert these.
Host: So in other words, if you ever get a diagnose of a neurologically impaired kid there are problems available, in the city, they are issued free. It's a little bit difficult because of school system, or a local school board they have some problems in between. Some places are better than others, but nothing will go wrong getting the kid into a stimulation program, because obviously government would pay for problems like that, especially with some real gains from it. But if you think there is a therapy that promise you a cure and take $10,000 a year, it's probably going to help the guys bottom line and may not help the kids that much, is that true?
Henry Joseph Hasson: Yeah, the most important thing again, if you have a child that has any sort of delays, speak with your pediatrician, he refers to a neurologist, get evaluated at developmental pediatrician, and really get evaluated properly, and you really want to be sent to the proper place where they can take -- where their primary goal is taken care of your child, they are not necessarily making money on the latest fed.
Host: I always believed that if you kind of put that question mark, we always have the pediatric neurologist or a lot of pediatrics to see the kid and put the government through one of the problems just to make sure that we are on the right track. Some times masters of social work who went to all mental history, and then they are up at the saying there is component, is that true?
Henry Joseph Hasson: Yeah, of course and a lot of times there are specific problems that can be diagnosed more than just, oh, he doesn't speak well or he doesn't walk well. A lot of times these are due to specific neurological problems, nerve, muscle, in the brain anywhere, and that can really only be diagnosed properly by pediatrician.
Host: Thank you very much!
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