Help With Autism

Adapted from a New York Times story
Published September 9, 2008A clinical research paper published a decade ago triggered widespread fears that the MMR vaccine–which combined measles, mumps and rubella—was a direct result of autism in young children.  Other research over the years has proven contradictory, and now a new study conducted to replicate the original study has provided further evidence that the MMR vaccine was not the culprit.  The initial paper appeared in the Lancet, linking the vaccine, autism, and the gastrointestinal problems found in many autistic children.  Researchers later expanded on this theory, assuming that the measles component of the MMR vaccine caused inflammation that allowed toxins to enter the body and damage the central nervous system, causing autism.  Now, a team of researchers from Columbia University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has been unable to replicate the initial findings.

A group of 38 children with gastrointestinal issues were observed in the recent study; 25 were autistic, 13 were not.  All had received the MMR vaccine.   Only 5 of the autistic children had been vaccinated prior to the onset of their gastrointestinal problems and autism diagnosis.  Genetics testing found remnants of the measles virus in only two of the children—one was autistic while the other was not.  The scientists concluded there was insufficient evidence to link the vaccine to autism in these subjects.  The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the World Health Organization, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have also gone on record as being unable to find a causal link between vaccination and autism.  The Lancet complained in 2004 that the lead author of the original paper had not been forthright about a conflict of interest, while ten of his co-authors retracted the paper’s implication that the vaccine might be linked to autism.

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