Edward Yazbak

F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP, is a retired pediatrician who writes regularly about autism and vaccines, particularly on websites. He was a well-known pediatrician in Greater Woonsocket, Rhode Island and school physician in Woonsocket and North Smithfield, Rhode Island, [http://www.woonsocketcall.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11824924&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=24361&rfi=15] before retiring several years ago. He is now based in Falmouth, Massachusetts, where he studies the medical histories of children with autism spectrum disorders.

Yazbak is a leading proponent of the theory that vaccination of young children and pregnant women is a risk factor for subsequent development of autism. Yazbak is thus in the movement which contends that there are flaws within the current medical understanding of the diagnosis, pathogenesis, and treatment of autism. He is the grandfather of a boy with autism, who has what Yazbak describes as 'autistic enterocolitis' (a controversial entity). Yazbak was a school physician for 34 years (during which time his responsibilities included school district vaccine programs), and in 1966 he co-authored an article on the Apgar scores of twins [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=5231966] .

Yazbak contends the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, when given to pregnant mothers and infant children, is a factor in the perceived increasing number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Yazbak's first research on pregnancy and MMR involved seven women, contacted by email through vaccine groups, who received the MMR, and their children. His results were published on a website rather than a peer-reviewed medical journal. "All of the children who resulted from these pregnancies have had developmental problems, six of the seven (85 percent) were diagnosed with autism and the seventh seems to exhibit symptoms often associated with autistic spectrum disorders," he wrote in the article.

Yazbak stands in opposition to the strong medical consensus, which is that scientific evidence provides no support for the hypothesis that MMR plays a role in causing autism. [cite journal |author= Rutter M |title= Incidence of autism spectrum disorders: changes over time and their meaning |journal= Acta Paediatr |volume=94 |issue=1 |date=2005 |pages=2–15 |pmid=15858952 |doi= 10.1080/08035250410023124] However, the theory that MMR causes autism has led to a drop in vaccination rates. A 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana was attributed to children whose parents refused vaccination. [cite journal |author=Parker A, Staggs W, Dayan G "et al." |title= Implications of a 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana for sustained elimination of measles in the United States |journal= N Engl J Med |volume=355 |issue=5 |pages=447–55 |year=2006 |pmid=16885548 |doi= 10.1056/NEJMoa060775] After vaccination rates dropped in northern Nigeria in the early 2000s due to religious and political objections, the number of measles cases rose significantly, and hundreds of children died. [cite news |title= Measles kills more than 500 children so far in 2005 |publisher=IRIN |date=2005-03-21 |url=http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=53506 |accessdate=2007-08-13]

Yazbak has also questioned the logic behind supporting research to develop new vaccines designed to deliver disease immunity to both the mother and her infant in utero.

Bibliography

* Yazbak, F.E., [http://www.vacunacionlibre.org/yazbak.pdf"Autism in the United States: A Perspective"] (PDF) - "Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons", Vol 8, No 4, Winter 2003
* Yazbak, F.E., [http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7433/226-c "Autism seems to be increasing worldwide, if not in London"] - Letter - "British Medical Journal" 2004;328:226-227 (January 24, 2004)
* Yazbak, F.E., [http://www.vaproject.org/yazbak/Unconvincing-Thimerosal-Studies-20080902.htm 'The Unconvincing Thimerosal Epidemiological Studies: How and Why They Were Produced, Published and Protected'] - (2008)

References

External links

* [http://www.redflagsdaily.com/columnists/yazbak Yazbak's column] in "Red Flags"