Hepatitis B vaccine

The Hepatitis B vaccine, which is required by most states of children in order to be admitted to public school, reportedly increases the risk of multiple sclerosis. Note that Hepatitis B is not contagious in the school setting and is not required of school teachers. It is required of schoolchildren as a result of lobbying by the manufacturer, which makes a profit on every additional shot given. It is lucrative for a company to pass a law that requires people to buy its product!

Recombinant hepatitis B vaccine and the risk of multiple sclerosis
A prospective study

Miguel A. Hernán, MD, DrPH, Susan S. Jick, DSc, Michael J. Olek, DO and Hershel Jick, MD

From the Department of Epidemiology (Dr. Hernán), Harvard School of Public Health, Boston; Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program (Drs. Susan S. Jick and Hershel Jick), Boston University, Lexington, MA; and Department of Neurology (Dr. Olek), College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine.

Background: A potential link between the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine and an increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been evaluated in several studies, but some of them have substantial methodologic limitations.

Methods: The authors conducted a nested case-control study within the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) in the United Kingdom. ...

Results: The analyses include 163 cases of MS and 1,604 controls. The OR of MS for vaccination within 3 years before the index date compared to no vaccination was 3.1 (95% CI 1.5, 6.3). No increased risk of MS was associated with tetanus and influenza vaccinations.

Conclusions: These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that immunization with the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine is associated with an increased risk of MS, and challenge the idea that the relation between hepatitis B vaccination and risk of MS is well understood.

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