Dr. J. Barthelow Classen, MD presents compelling evidence linking hepatitis B vaccine and other vaccines commonly used in childhood to the rise in type 1 insulin dependent diabetes. Following is a brief discussion. To access the full article and others, please link to Dr. Classen's website at:

http://vaccines.net/newpage18.htm  and
http://vaccines.net/

Discussion

Published data links the hepatitis B vaccine to an epidemic of IDDM (Classen,DC & Classen, 1997). The incidence of type I diabetes in the 0-19 year old age group has been studied since 1982 in Christchurch, New Zealand and a rise in type I diabetes was noted to occur in 1989 (Classen,JB, 1996b) after the initiation of an hepatitis B immunization program. The government of New Zealand introduced a massive Hepatitis B vaccination program in 1988 which was extended to include all children under 16 and over 70% of children were vaccinated within a few years with almost all of the immunization starting after 6 week of life. The initial vaccine was a human blood derived product but was switched to a recombinant vaccine around 1990. The annual incidence of type I diabetes in persons 0-19 years old living in Christchurch rose from 11.2 cases/100,000 children in the years prior to the immunization program, 1982-1987, to 18.1 cases/100,000 children (p=0.0008) in the years following the immunization 1989-1991. Additional data presented publicly by Dr. Scott shows the increased incidence of diabetes in Christchurch has been extended through 1994.