Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines meetings

ACCV Meeting (June 10-11, 2010)

The quarterly Advisory Committee of Childhood Vaccines (ACCV) meeting was held June 10 and 11 in Rockville, Maryland. For those not familiar with the ACCV, it is the committee responsible for advising and making recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues relating to the operation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The ACCV meetings are fascinating because the fundamentals of the VICP are presented.

Geoff Evans reported on the fiscal year 2010. So far, eighty-three cases have been compensated in the VICP. Thirty-four cases have been dismissed, totaling 117 cases that have been through the VICP this year. He also reported that the VICP Trust Fund currently has $3.3 billion.

Mark Rogers an attorney from the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Vaccine Litigation Office presented the latest statistics of the petitions filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Not surprisingly, the autism claims since the omnibus decisions of 2009 and 2010 have dropped off significantly. In fact, the last quarter only saw two autism claims in the Omnibus Autism Program (OAP.) The most interesting part of Mark Roger's presentation was the stipulations slides (read: cases that were compensated in some manner.) These slides provide information on which vaccines caused harm, the injury that occurred and how long it took for the case to be compensated. Click here to view this presentation.

There was also a presentation by HRSA regarding medical analyses of recent VICA cases. In the past 2 months 45% of the cases reviewed were filed secondary to flu vaccine injury. Of the non-autism adverse events, 30% were for Guiallian-Barre' Syndrome (GBS) and 12% for other demyelinating diseases. They are seeing a "weak" signal for injury with the flu vaccine and GBS. If these two categories were combined the signal would be much stronger. They are also seeing a large number of claims in the 30 to 49 year old population which they characterize as being predominately health care workers who have awareness of the program. An initiative to increase overall awareness of VICA to the general public is much needed. There is a new category of shoulder arm injuries (6%) which they are attributing to using too long of a needle for the injection and giving the vaccine higher up in the deltoid muscle near the shoulder. Click here to view the slides.

Kathleen Stratton of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported that a research committee has been assembled to report on adverse reactions to specific vaccines. A very detailed report from this endeavor should be out sometime in 2011. A working list of vaccines and injuries to be investigated was distributed to the committee. Read it here.

Looking at the DTaP and MMR columns, you will notice that autism was listed as one of the adverse reactions that this committee will be investigating. You will also notice the asterisk indicating the group will be looking at "secondary autism" versus "primary autism" as an adverse outcome. It explains that the 2004 IOM statement already clears up that autism can not be caused by vaccines. However, this committee will look at the possibility of some children who have chronic encephalopathy or mitochondrial issues developing autism or autistic features after the DTaP or MMR vaccine.