Pertussis vaccine immunizations each year in the United States), and the risk of death from the disease was high (pertussis killed thousands of Americans each year before the vaccine was introduced). No studies showed a causal connection, and later studies showed no connection of any type between the DPT vaccine and permanent brain injury. The alleged vaccine-induced brain damage proved to be an unrelated condition, infantile epilepsy. In 1990, the "Journal of the American Medical Association" called the connection a "myth" and "nonsense". However, negative publicity and fear-mongering caused the immunization rate to fall in several countries, including the UK, Sweden, and
Machado–Joseph disease Abandonment" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006). Machado–Joseph disease Machado–Joseph disease (MJD), also known as Machado–Joseph Azorean disease, Machado's disease, Joseph's disease or spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), is a rare autosomal dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive cerebellar ataxia, which results in a lack of muscle control and coordination of the upper and lower extremities. The symptoms are caused by a genetic mutation that results in an expansion of abnormal "CAG" trinucleotide repeats in the ATXN3 gene that results in an abnormal form of the protein ataxin which causes degeneration of cells in the hindbrain. Some symptoms, such