There is no link between the MMR jab and autism, according to the largest published study on the issue.
Take-up of the triple vaccine for mumps, measles and rubella plummeted in the late 1990s over concerns that it may be linked to bowel disorders and autism. A study of 12 children, published in the medical journal The Lancet in 1998, suggested that there was a causal link.
Andrew Wakefield, the lead author of the research, and John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch, his co-authors, are appearing before the General Medical Council accused of serious professional misconduct in relation to the study.
Subsequent studies have declared the MMR vaccine safe and found that the rate of autism in children who have received the jab is the same as those who have not.
But the causes of autism and related disorders are poorly understood and a small group of parents and campaigners have continued to believe in Dr Wakefield’s findings.
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After a series of rebuttals from the Government and scientific community, take-up of the jab is now slowly rising again. The latest figures show that 85 per cent of two-year-olds received at least one dose of the MMR vaccine in 2006-07, and 75 per cent of children received a second recommended dose by the age of 5.
But the drop in vaccinations because of the MMR scare has been blamed for a increase in measles, which rose to about 1,000 cases last year compared with 756 cases in 2006, the Health Protection Agency said.
The new research is published today in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Researchers from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London, King’s College London, the University of Manchester and the Health Protection Agency studied almost 250 children aged between 10 and 12, all of whom had been given at least one MMR jab.
They sought to find out through blood samples whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) showed raised concentrations of measles antibodies or an abnormal immune response.
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The results showed there was no difference in virus or antibody levels between children with ASD and the comparison groups. This was unaffected by whether or not the child had received both MMR doses or whether or not they had regressed (where children appear to develop communication skills, but then regress).
The study also found no evidence of bowel symptoms (enterocolitis) among the autistic children, irrespective of whether or not they had regression.