 News
29th May 2006
New fear over MMR link to autism
New American research shows that there could be a link between
the controversial MMR triple vaccine and autism and bowel disease in children.
A team from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine
in North Carolina are examining 275 children with regressive autism and
bowel disease and their findings are confirming claims made by Dr Andrew
Wakefield when his research provoked a storm in 1998.
The current study, led by Dr Stephen Walker, has found that
70 of the 82 children already tested have proved positive for the measles
virus.
Dr Walker said on Saturday, "'Of the handful of results
we have in so far, all are vaccine strain and none are wild measles.
"This research proves that in the gastrointestinal
tract of a number of children who have been diagnosed with regressive
autism, there is evidence of measles virus.
"What it means is that Dr Wakefield's implication may
be correct."
The 1998 study by Dr Wakefield and 12 other doctors claimed
to have found a new bowel disease, autism enterocolitis.
At the time, Dr Wakefield said that although they had not
proved a link between MMR and autism, there was cause for concern and
the Government should offer the option of single vaccines - instead of
only MMRs - until more research had been done.
The paper caused uproar and led to many parents withdrawing
their co-operation for the triple jab.
Ten of the paper's authors signed retractions on the interpretation
but stood by the science.
In 2001 an independent study by John O'Leary, Professor
of Pathology at St James's Hospital and Trinity College, Dublin, replicated
Dr Wakefield's findings.
Dr Wakefield says, "This new study confirms what we
found in British children and again with Professor O'Leary. The only exposure
these children have had to measles is through the MMR vaccine.
"They were developing normally until they regressed.
They now suffer autism and bowel disease.
"The Department of Health and some of the media wanted
to dismiss our research as insignificant. The excuse was that no one else
had the same findings as us.
"What they didn't say is that no one else had looked."
A spokesman for the Department of Health said they had not
read the American report, but added,
"MMR remains the best form of protection against measles,
mumps and rubella."
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