Nosodes as vaccination alternative
The Canadian Paediatric Society asked Health Canada for the warning labels in a position paper published on Monday. As it stands the labels on the highly controversial nosodes do not note that they have never been shown to be effective.
Dr. Michael Rieder of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research said that diseases such as measles, preventable by safe vaccinations, are on the rise in Canada largely because of parents being influenced by incomplete and false information on nosodes.
“Parents need to understand that the evidence would not support the use of these to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases,” Dr. Rieder said. “To see kids getting vaccine-preventable disease in an era when effective and safe vaccination is available is extremely frustrating.”
Charging $15 for a single bottle treatment and up to $200 for a full course of treatments they say covers many illnesses, homeopathic websites refer to nosodes with such terms as “powerful medicine” and say they have been effectively treating diseases covered now by conventional vaccines for hundreds of years, but offer no proof.
Discredited immunization studies
To make nosodes, bodily fluids are taken from a person or an animal infected with an ailment. Those fluids are diluted, very often until there is no active ingredient left. Homeopaths say they can prevent all manner of illness, including the flu, measles, tuberculosis and whooping cough. There have recently been claims they can prevent the Ebola virus.
Many ‘natural health’ websites extol the virtues of nosodes while maligning vaccines, often claiming vaccines are dangerous and nothing more than a money-making scheme of “Big Pharma.”
Attacks on vaccines began after publication in the late 90s of a discredited study, rife with error and fiction, on MMR vaccines from Andrew Wakefield. His study was found to have conflict of interests in its funding and the British General Medical Council found him gully of three dozen offences, including numerous counts of dishonesty and 12 counts of abusing developmentally challenged children. He was banned from working in the field.
Meanwhile, a study often cited by homeopaths as a testament to nosodes was shown to have serious flaws in a 2013 Globe and Mail story. No studies show nosodes as an effective treatment and scientists have called them no better than a placebo
Calls for warning labels
Within the past few months there have been many such calls for warnings on the labels of nosodes, and calls for their outright ban, with medical officials saying homeopathic doctors make false claims about them. In November a CBC Marketplace investigation found that many homeopathic doctors are telling patients nosodes are safe and vaccines are not.
“Some of the homeopathic practitioners that Marketplace visited offered treatments, called “nosodes,” as vaccine alternatives,” a CBC story said. “Telling parents that the treatment is as effective as vaccines against diseases such as measles, polio and pertussis (whooping cough), which is highly contagious and can be fatal for infants.”
Shannon MacDonald, a registered nurse and Univ.of Alberta professor who researches vaccine trends, called the stance taken by homeopathic doctors “frightening” and “irresponsible.” She is alarmed by reports of many parents opting out of vaccines and said she’s worked overseas and seen the results of preventable diseases taking hold in a community and insists they are something “to be afraid of.”
“If the herd immunity level drops and these diseases are introduced into the community, those children are not protected,” MacDonald says. “You have well-meaning parents who’ve been provided an option, which they’ve been told that it’s going to protect their children. And it’s a lie.
“It’s very concerning,” she adds. “People are turning to these alternative health-care practitioners for advice, and if the practitioners are not actually trained to know the science behind vaccines, they shouldn’t be providing any advice to parents on it. It’s not their area of specialty. It’s terribly irresponsible.”
Health Minister: No response
In February, Dr. Robert Strang, chief public health officer of Nova Scotia, called for a ban on nosodes. “There’s no evidence to support their claims at all around providing immunity against infectious diseases,” Dr. Strang said. “I think, frankly, having them available on the market is dangerous. It’s distracting and it’s helping people avoid immunization or giving them a reason not to be immunized.”
Homeopathic doctors often decline being interviewed for stories on nosodes, though many told CBC Marketplace off-camera that they are simply making an alternative product available to consumers. Despite the lack of study and no proven results, off-camera they maintained nosodes work.
Canada’s health minister, Rona Ambrose, has ignored calls for changes in the way that nosodes are labelled. The Globe and Mail reported this week that she “did not respond to questions…asking why Health Canada continues to give its seal of approval to nosodes.”
The Canadian Paediatric Society notes that 179 nosodes are currently permitted for sale by Health Canada and 82 of them carry product labels telling consumers they can help prevent infectious diseases.
