Study Finds Measles Vaccine Far More Likely to Fail in C-Section Babies
- by Carolyn Hendler, JD
- Published
- Risk & Failure Reports
According to a new study published in Nature Microbiology, babies born via Caesarean section (C-section) are likely to fail to respond to one dose of the live attenuated MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. In fact, researchers found it is 2.6 times more likely that the vaccine is ineffective for babies, who are born via C-section, than babies who are born vaginally.1 2 3
The study by researchers at the University of Cambridge and Fudan University in China concluded that the immune systems of C-section babies do not produce a robust response to the initial dose of the MMR vaccine. It is hypothesized that the gut microbiome of C-section babies is not as developed as that of vaginally born babies and, therefore, the babies do not produce an adequate immune response to the vaccine.4 According to previous studies, babies born vaginally receive more genetically diverse gut-colonizing microbes from their mothers, which boosts their immune response.5
Henrik Salje, co-senior study author said:
We’ve discovered that the way we’re born—either by C-section or natural birth—has long-term consequences on our immunity to diseases as we grow up.6
Researchers examined data of 1,505 children in the first year of life from 2013 through 2018 finding that 12 percent of babies born via C-section failed to mount an immune response to the measles shot compared to only five percent of vaginally born children.7 8
The research, funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, looked at a mother-neonate cohort and a population-based cohort of children one to nine years old. Researchers followed up on the infant cohort approximately every six months from 2013 to 2016. Researchers looked at blood samples of the infants over time to determine how measles antibody levels changed over time, including pre and post vaccination..9 10
The study showed that a second dose of the MMR vaccine produced a more robust immune response in babies born via C-section.11
The implications of the first dose of the MMR vaccine being less effective in babies born by c-section are vast as approximately one-third of all pregnant women in the United States and the United Kingdom end up having C-sections. In Brazil and Turkey, more than one half of all children are born by C-section.12 13
Measles Cases On the Rise
The number of repotedcases of measles in the U.S. were up in the first quarter of 2024 by more than 17-fold over the number of cases of measles reported in the first quarters of the previous three years. In an article published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), federal health officials stated:
The rapid increase in the number of reported measles cases during the first quarter of 2024 represents a renewed threat to elimination.14
In 2023, the number of reported measles cases increased by 79 percent
in the U.S. and the majority of the infections were diagnosed in
children.15
There were 97 cases of measles reported in the U.S by April 2024 and,
according to health officials, 83 percent of the cases were in people
who had not received measles vaccine or had an unknown vaccination
status, with half of all cases occurring in children under age five. The
CDC pointed out that no one has died from the measles in the U.S. in
the last four years.16 17
Most of measles cases in 2024 have been associated with travel outside of the country,18
The CDC has determined that to date in 2024, six of the 16 cases from
abroad came from Europe and East Asia. This is a 50 percent increase in
imported cases of the measles from that part of the world.19
Outbreak in Chicago Migrant Center
The CDC blamed a recent measles outbreak in a Chicago migrant center on Venezuelan immigrants, claiming that 84 percent of the measles cases were linked to the immigrants. According to a CDC report, 72 percent occurred in individuals who had not received measles vaccine or had an unknown vaccination status and were considered unvaccinated.
Patient zero at the shelter was a one-year-old boy who had received one dose of the MMR vaccine five weeks before his diagnosis. He had not traveled for five months and had not been exposed to anyone with a symptomatic case of measles.20 The boy lived in a large shelter housed 2,100 people in February, with more than 500 people residing in some rooms.21
Vaccine Failure May Be to Blame for Rise in Measles Cases
The CDC and the media have blamed the increase in measles cases on alleged “misinformation” about vaccines on social media and parents, who are not complying with the government’s measles vaccine recommendations that children receive two doses of MMR vaccine between 15 months and six years old.22
According to the CDC, in the 2022-23 school year, just over 93 percent of kindergarten students in the U.S. were up-to-date on MMR vaccinations.23 This is a total two percent decline in measles vaccine coverage rates among school children compared to the 2020-2021 school year and is two percent short of the 95 percent MMR vaccination coverage CDC officials say must be maintained in a population to prevent measles transmission.24
CDC officials admitted that the 12 month old recently vaccinated boy, who started the measles outbreak in the Chicago migrant shelter, had been living in the shelter for months without traveling and was not an “import” case but a victim of measles vaccine failure and breakthrough infection. They stated that “the index patient’s arrival in Chicago months before the illness onset suggests that the disease was acquired locally.” It is unclear as to whether he was born via C-section.
While the high 95 percent measles vaccination rate among U.S. school children may have declined slightly over the past few years, it is possible that measles vaccine failure could play a larger role in recent outbreaks in the U.S. and abroad than has been acknowledged by the media, even though MMR vaccine failures and breakthrough infections been reported in the medical literature since the 1990s. In a recent article published in The Vaccine Reaction, Barbara Loe Fisher, president and co-founder of the National Vaccine information Center (NVIC), stated:
… a more significant inconvenient truth is that there are an unknown number of mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic cases of measles circulating in highly vaccinated populations like the U.S., which are never diagnosed, reported or counted in measles outbreak statistics.25
If you would like to receive an e-mail notice of the most recent articles published in The Vaccine Reaction each week, click here.
Click here to view Referen
No comments:
Post a Comment