U.S. Study Finds No Vaccination-Diabetes Link

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U.S. Study Finds No Vaccination-Diabetes Link



CHICAGO (Reuters) - Common childhood vaccinations, including newer ones such as those for hepatitis B, do not cause children to develop diabetes, researchers reported on Monday.



The conclusion came from a look at 768 diabetes-free children who were compared to 252 others who had juvenile diabetes. Those who had been vaccinated against hepatitis B, whooping cough, chickenpox and other diseases were no more likely to have developed diabetes than those who had not been given the vaccines, the study concluded.



"The results of our study and the preponderance of epidemiologic evidence do not support an association between any of the recommended childhood vaccines and an increased risk of type 1 diabetes,'' said the report published in the December issue of "ediatrics,'' the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.



"Suggestions that diabetes risk in humans may be altered by changes in the timing of vaccinations also are unfounded,'' it added.



Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) and a number of health care institutions in Oregon, Washington and California who conducted the study said earlier research also had not shown an association but a fresh look had not been taken since 1990 when some newer vaccines came into use.



The cause of juvenile diabetes is not known but genetic and environmental factors are believed to be involved, the study said.



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Monday December 3 1:28 PM ET



No Link Found Between Child Vaccines and Diabetes



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard childhood vaccinations--including the more recent additions to recommended shots--do not raise children's risk of diabetes, according to US researchers.



"The results of our study and the preponderance of epidemiologic evidence do not support an association between any of the recommended childhood vaccines and an increased risk of type 1 diabetes,'' writes a team led by Dr. Frank DeStefano of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) in Atlanta, Georgia.



"Suggestions that diabetes risk in humans may be altered by changes in the timing of vaccinations also are unfounded,'' they add in the December online edition of the journal Pediatrics.



Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children, teens and young adults. Unlike the far more common type 2 diabetes--which typically arises later in life--type 1 diabetes is caused by an abnormal immune system attack on the pancreatic cells that produce insulin. Insulin is needed to control blood sugar levels, and people with type 1 diabetes must take daily injections of insulin.



Exactly what triggers the immune system attack is unknown. Researchers have speculated that childhood vaccines could be a factor, but most studies have failed to find an association.



Still, DeStefano's team notes, most of these studies were conducted before 1990, and so did not look at some newer vaccines.



In their study, the researchers evaluated 252 cases of US children that developed insulin-dependent diabetes and compared them with 768 children without diabetes. All of the children were born between 1988 and 1997 and received numerous recommended vaccines.



"We did not find an increased risk of type 1 diabetes associated with any of the routinely recommended childhood vaccines,'' the researchers report.



"Our study adds to previous research by providing data on newer vaccines, including hepatitis B, acellular pertussis (whooping cough) and varicella (chickenpox),'' DeStefano and colleagues note.



While experts remain unsure of what causes type 1 diabetes, they believe that both genetic and environmental factors play a role.



SOURCE: Pediatrics 2001;108:e112.