Question:
From Naval Station at Rota, Spain:
My 2 and a half year old was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 3 weeks ago. We had just moved to Spain 5 weeks prior to that. As part of our moving requirements to Southern Spain the Navy had administered a typhoid and Hepatitis A vaccine to the entire family. The shots were given at the same time - one in each arm - 4 and a half months before diagnosis. Could these shots or one of the shots have been the environmental trigger that brought out diabetes in my son?
Answer:
No. If you remember that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease with a relatively long prodromal phase even in children (we are nowadays better defining the natural history of diabetes-related autoimmunity detecting autoantibodies sometimes as early as few months after birth) then you can easily understand that 4 and an a half months before clinical diagnosis means nothing from the etiological and pathogenetic point of view. You can read a lot more on the vaccine and diabetes issue at previous answers on this web site.
MS
Original posting 26 Oct 1998
Posted to Research: Causes and Prevention
This site is published by Children With Diabetes, Inc, which is responsible for its contents.