In the Novemer 29, 1999 issue of People magazine a child with transverse myelitis of unknown etiology was featured. The article stated that doctors can only speculate as to what caused her transverse myelitis, but "they think it may have been triggered by a reaction to hepatitis vaccination that she received at the end of January, 1999." Dr. Douglas Kerr, the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center was quoted as saying "It is known that vaccinations can cause neurological diseases,"

In an interview on December 1, 1999 Dr. Kerr offered the following:

"I see a large number of people with transverse myelitis and an association with any vaccine has not been established. Although some vaccines can rarely cause neurologic problems, concerns about vaccines causing several other neurologic diseases have been looked for and were not proven. I support hepatitis B vaccination because not to get vaccinated will result in significantly more disease and death from a potentially preventable disease." 

Dr. Kerr has written a Letter to the Editor of People Magazine in an attempt to clarify his position on the safety of hepatitis B vaccine.

This page was last updated on January 07, 2009

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