Positive Health Online

Eight year old Savita attended my clinic with her mother and grandmother. She had been diagnosed with epilepsy and her mother was under a lot of pressure for Savita to start a course of anticonvulsants in order to control the fits. Due to the origin of the epilepsy, her mother decided that she wanted to try and pursue other types of treatment in order to solve her daughter's problem.

Savita had been a very happy child with very few ailments apart from the usual coughs and colds of childhood. Then, approximately two months before pitching up in my clinic room, she had received the meningitis C vaccine. As a baby she had received all of the usual childhood vaccinations with no problem at all, but a day after the meningitis C vaccine she developed a high fever, which was put down to a reaction to the vaccine, which '…would pass'. As predicted, the fever did pass quickly, but then the fits started. Just to give you an idea of the problem, an initial consultation with me takes between 60 and 90 minutes and during that time Savita had five fits. Each fit lasted 10 seconds or so and consisted of Savita's body becoming rigid; her hands would come up to her shoulders and were held in a 'clawed' position. Her head went back and she grimaced; her whole body appeared to be in spasm. During the consultation she sat on her grandmother's knee, who gently held her during each fit. Both mother and grandmother were very distressed; for my part Savita's was one of those cases where the homeopathy just HAD to work.

Regarding other aspects of the case, Savita was a small child for her age, fine boned, with a head that seemed slightly too big for her body. She was always cold and would crave the warmth. She was a timid child, who would get bogged down with small tasks spending ages over them; everything had to be right or she would worry about it.

After carrying out the analysis, the indicated remedy was Silica. This is strongly indicated in any case where there is 'never been well since vaccination' and, more specifically, epilepsy after vaccination. Savita's body shape and other aspects of the case also strongly indicate the remedy. I prescribed a split dose at the 1M strength; a follow up appointment was made for four weeks; we all waited. A week or so before the allotted time Savita's mother cancelled the appointment. I tried to call a few times to find out why, couldn't get an answer and eventually gave up. I assumed she didn't rearrange as the remedy had not worked and Savita was probably now on anticonvulsants. It is always a dilemma for me as to how long I pester a patient before letting it go. However, three or four months later I received a letter from Savita's mother, full of apologies for not being in touch beforehand. Savita's fits stopped completely after the first tablet, and to the date of writing she had not had another fit! I was blown away. The remedy was a very good fit but I did not expect this wonderful result. We monitored Savita and I readied her mother with some more Silica just in case the fits came back. Thankfully for the next year Savita did not fit, the family then moved out of the area and I lost contact with them; hopefully the effect of the remedy is still holding.

Vaccinations and whether 'to vaccinate or not to vaccinate' are a very murky area. There is a lot of research and anecdotal evidence to support both sides of the argument – much of it coloured from an emotive perspective, which one has to try and see beyond. From a homeopathic point of view we have homeopathic preparations made from all of the vaccines (childhood and travel) e.g. MMR, Hib, polio, HepA/B, BCG etc. and we also have remedies made from the pathogens (organisms) that cause such diseases. Homeopaths, depending on their teaching and experience, may prescribe either a homeopathic version of the orthodox vaccination or the pathogen to protect the child. However, the evidence to show that this works is purely anecdotal. Other homeopaths believe that if the child receives its constitutional remedy on a regular basis it will be strong enough to resist infection in the first place. Again, there is strong anecdotal evidence to support this, but in interpreting it, one has to remember the concept of 'herd immunity'. This states that any contagious disease has to have a threshold minimum number of susceptible individuals in a population for it to exist. Now, if the number of susceptibles is below the threshold, the disease cannot get a foothold and this is the situation that we see with large scale vaccinations. Most of the people are immune due to the vaccine, and this means that those not immunized are unlikely to come across the disease and thus remain uninfected. So you see the dilemma in interpreting information: have the non-vaccinated individuals resisted infection due to very strong constitutions from the constitutional remedies they received, or have they simply been protected by herd immunity at the population level?

As a practitioner, I do not know what the answer is regarding 'to vaccinate or not to vaccinate'; we have to be wary about both. I see my own position to be that of educator regarding both sides of the argument, facilitating parents to be able to make an informed decision. I then support them in whatever decision they have come to, knowing that homeopathy provides me with the tools to do just that.

Ultimately nobody, including myself, knows if Savita's epilepsy was caused by the vaccination. However, there is a very definite coincidence with the administration of the vaccine and the fits; correspondingly we have a parallel situation with the administration of the remedy and the cessation of the problem.