I read the reports on The Amish and vaccines and found them lacking in one major area. They don't mention that Amish populations in the U.S are overwhelmed with birth defects caused by intermarriage. A simple web search of birth defects among the Amish will give you the information. My first husband was Amish and he saw whole families impacted by birth defects so rare they did not even have a name for them. In many areas the Amish live in, they make up only 10% of the population but 50% of the special needs. It May be not a vaccine connection but the lack of Autism in Amish society may be because of the population coming from only a few hundred to start with the Autism gene was not in that pool. Don't hold the Amish up as a model for good health due to lack of vaccines. Amish children die every year from easly prevented illnesses like mumps and measles. It's not unusual to find all 4 or 5 children in a family functioning at a 1 to 2 year old level as adults due to the close nature of a small gene pool. According to reports in the American medical journal
"Outbreaks of infectious disease among communities receiving religious exemption from immunization showcase the effectiveness of the vaccines and the consequences of refusal. In 1985, measles raged through a Christian Scientist school, with 125 cases and 3 deaths.In 1991, there were at least 890 cases of rubella among the Amish in 5 states, and over a dozen babies with congenital rubella syndrome in Pennsylvania alone. These cases would have been entirely preventable with immunization. In a measles outbreak among the US Amish in 1987, there were 130 cases. The attack rate was 1.7% among immunized individuals, and 73.8% among unimmunized individuals. Two Amish died of measles in the following year. In 1979, a polio outbreak paralyzed 14 Amish people in the United States; the outbreak spread to unimmunized non-Amish neighbors. In 1992, a Netherlands epidemic of polio began in a religious community affecting 68 people, paralyzing 59, and killing 2. None of the affected were immunized."
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