Association of Natural Health – by Suzanne Humphries, MD
Today, half a century after measles vaccines have become commonplace, and two to three generations beyond the expectation of contracting measles during childhood as a regular event, measles is now thought of as a potentially deadly disease with no redeeming qualities. However, a look into the medical literature of the past shows us that wild measles may indeed have afforded immunologic advantages to those infected.
Immunity
Dr. Peter Aaby et al. and his team found that children who survived natural measles had a much higher survival rate from all other infectious causes than other children. Children who had the measles vaccine, had a lower rate of survival and the worst group in terms of overall survival from infections, was the group which had neither measles vaccines nor measles disease. That’s published research.¹ Their (compromise) conclusion was that it would be necessary to use the measles vaccine forever, because of the value of the vaccine in protecting against all-cause mortality in the absence of actual infection.
Kidney disease
Infection with measles virus during severe unrelenting episodes of childhood nephrotic syndrome² has been a topic of much discussion in the medical literature since the early part of the 20th century, beginning with Pirquet in 1908.³
Numerous reports reflecting varying degrees of resolution after measles infections exist in conventional medical journals.4,5 At first glance, some of the results seem lackluster, as many of the children had recurrence after a period of becoming disease-free. However upon closer examination of how these children were treated, nearly all of the relapses occurred in those who were also treated with gammaglobulin, which reduces the full expression and immune response to measles. Or they were given sulfa drugs or mercurials, as well as vaccines.
The reports that reflect cases of nephrotic syndrome, and untampered measles infection, with limited or no radical treatment of the nephrosis, had the most long-lasting and dramatic recoveries.
One case of interest appeared in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood in 1978. It was a reflection upon a boy who developed nephrosis 60 years prior. He was not given any drugs and had a full and life-long recovery.
What makes his case even more interesting is that it followed Herring’s laws of disease. It is obvious that a superficial entity was driven deeper by suppressive treatments, resulting in his nephrosis.
R. was a healthy 10-year-old boy who in 1916 developed a rash on the legs, diagnosed as eczema. After prolonged treatment with an ointment the rash disappeared. A specimen of urine routinely examined during this time had been noted to contain albumin and casts.6
Doctors continued draining his abdomen of liters upon liters of fluid, making his disease worse. But alas before the doctor’s treatments, of ongoing abdominal fluid drainage with development of an abscess, were able to kill him, wild measles came along and brought him back to health.
Once more hopes rose, only to be extinguished yet again by what appeared at the time to be the inevitably final catastrophe-the onset of a high fever and what proved to be an attack of measles. Miraculously, as it seemed to those about him, he survived this and, thereafter, his gradual return to full health was uninterrupted. Some 6 months had elapsed since he had first become oedematous, a trace of albumin in the urine only remained.7
The boy enjoyed a life-long recovery. He was cured, in my opinion because he was not given corticosteroids, gammaglobulin, or antibiotics.
Remission of cancer after infection
Dr. HC Mota, in 1973, described a remission of infantile Hodgkin’s disease after natural measles.
A 23-month-old Caucasian male was seen for the first time in April 1970 with a large mass in the neck due to hypertrophy of the left cervical lymph nodes. . . A diagnosis of predominantly lymphocytic Hodgkin’s disease was made on the histopathological findings of lymph node biopsy. . . Before radiotherapy could be started the child developed measles. Much to our surprise the large cervical mass vanished without further therapy.8
There is another example reported, of wild measles leading to regression of Burkitt’s lymphoma in an eight-year-old African boy with painless right orbital swelling from a tumor. The appearance of generalized measles exanthema coincided with complete tumor regression. The patient remained in complete remission for 4 months after the measles infection.9 The idea of measles infection being anti-oncongenic came from wild measles, not engineered virus.
How many children had subclinical cases of cancer that spontaneously resolved after developing natural measles is unknown because it has not been adequately researched.
Msaouel et al. in 2009 conducted clinical testing of engineered oncolytic measles virus strains in the treatment of cancer. They note in their comprehensive report that previous vaccination against measles will negate the antitumor effect of the viral therapy.
The majority of cancer patients who are candidates for measles-based therapeutics are immune to the virus as a result of natural infection or vaccination. Immunity could have a negative impact on the therapeutic efficacy.10
Which leads one to ask, why not just let wild measles circulate and do the job nature intended at the time of life it was intended, which leads to 65 years of immunity and no need for life-span vaccination? And, as per Albonico11, probably reduces the chance of developing cancer during later life.
Natural measles infection, when managed properly with vitamin A and C and good nutrition is not a deadly entity. Mortality for the disease in developed countries was down by over 99% before the vaccine was invented. The first vaccines led to a terrible form of measles called atypical measles. Today’s vaccines are also a source of many diseases. Populations that are 100% vaccinated12 are still susceptible to measles because the vaccine provides a weak and dangerous shield against the disease.