CREDIT: Jon Murray, The Province

Elias Soursos of Richmond has joined a class-action lawsuit against drug manufacturers on behalf of his two-year-old son Niko, who is autistic.

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Niko Soursos was born a happy, healthy boy.

He spoke some words just before he turned one and seemed normal in every other way.

But after several routine shots of hepatitis-B vaccine, Niko started to withdraw from his mother and father and stopped speaking.

His alarmed parents had his hearing checked and it was found to be OK but further tests revealed the boy, who will be three in March, was autistic.

Elias Soursos believes his son suffered neurological damage from a preservative organic mercury compound in the vaccines and yesterday joined a class-action lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court against the drug manufacturers.

"It's basically been a nightmare," the Richmond father said yesterday. "The only reason why I'm participating in this class-action lawsuit is for my son.

"You're worried about what's going to happen with him when he's older. If he's not going to be functioning on his own, who is going to take care of him when we're gone?"

Soursos is alleging the makers of the vaccine, Merck Frosst Canada & Co. and Glaxosmithkline Inc., knew or ought to have known the "neurotoxic effects" of the mercury compound Thimerosal contained in the shots.

Another, similar class-action suit was filed in B.C. Supreme Court for a Sooke mother whose boy got DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus) shots that she alleges resulted in her son developing autistic symptoms.

Jacqueline Chamberlain says her son Aaron suffered neurological damage after he got two doses of the vaccine containing Thimerosal, made by Aventis Pasteur Ltd.

At about 18 months of age, after receiving the shots, he became unresponsive, withdrawn and slow in speech development. He also started to display repetitive behaviours and an obsessive-

compulsive disorder, she says.

Aaron was diagnosed with autism at age five and now, at 10, has limited language and social skills.

David Klein, the Vancouver lawyer for the two families, said mercury poisoning is well documented in medical literature. He also noted that the developing nervous systems of infants are particularly vulnerable.

About 20 other B.C. kids are attached to the two class-action certification applications, which could take eight months or more to be heard. If the cases are certified, they will proceed in court.

Another class-action application making similar allegations and involving 100 families in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan was filed by Klein in Ontario last March. That case has not yet been heard.

About 50 to 60 suits are also ongoing in the U.S. but there have been no outcomes there yet, Klein said.

Thimerosal is no longer used in routine vaccines for children in Canada.

Officials at Merck Frosst Canada and Glaxosmithkline said they had not yet seen the court documents and had no comment.

Aventis Pasteur could not be reached yesterday but said last year that Health Canada had approved its vaccines and it intended to defend itself vigorously in court.

'HIGHER SUSCEPTIBILITY' IN SOME KIDS

Thousands of B.C. kids got routine vaccines with the mercury compound Thimerosal but not all developed autism, says the lawyer who has launched a series of class-action lawsuits.

"The claim is not that all kids that get Thimerosal get autism," said David Klein. "It's that certain kids have a higher susceptibility. Different people have different metabolisms."

The warning signs for parents to watch for include developmental delays, language problems, motor-skill problems and lack of concentration, said Klein.

The DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus) vaccine with Thimerosal was routine in Canada from 1980 to the mid-1990s.

The hepatitis-B vaccine with Thimerosal was routine in Greater Vancouver from 1998 to 2001 and elsewhere in B.C. from 2000 to 2001. A Thimerosal-free hep-B vaccine was introduced in 2001.

kfraser@png.canwest.com

Ran with fact box "'Higher susceptibility' in some kids", which has been appended to the story.