|
The link between
autism and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine has
recently been the topic of much debate. The rate of autism
appears to have risen along with the number of children who
have received the vaccine, leading researchers to question
whether the vaccine plays a role in causing the condition.
However, a recent
study found no evidence that the MMR vaccine causes autism.
Using medical records,
researchers determined whether children born in Denmark between
January 1991 and December 1998 had received the MMR vaccine
and/or developed autism.
Findings indicated
that unvaccinated children developed autism at the same rate
as those given the MMR vaccine. Also, children who had been
vaccinated were just as likely to develop the condition before
the vaccine as after.
The study involved
over 500,000 children, 82 percent of which received the MMR
vaccine. Out of the entire group, 738 children were diagnosed
with an autistic disorder.
Autism is a neurological
disorder that impairs social, communication and imagination
skills. Symptoms often become apparent during the primary
school years, around the same time that children typically
receive vaccinations.
Researchers stated
that the fear of autism should not stop parents from having
their children vaccinated with the MMR vaccine.
The
New England Journal of Medicine November 7, 2002;347:1477-1482
While the study
methodology appears to be good, and there is much to learn
from the informative findings, there are some significant
shortcomings in the conclusions drawn. The study results raise
more questions than they answer and underscore the importance
for more research.
For example,
one important factor that the study failed to consider was
the absence of thimerosal in the other infant vaccines the
children of the Danish study received prior to getting their
MMR vaccine.
The mercury-based
preservative, under legal fire for triggering autism, was
removed from vaccines on the market in Denmark prior to the
birth dates of the children studied. American children, on
the other hand, have potential cumulative mercury exposures,
sometimes at neurotoxic levels, from prenatal exposures, which
include maternal vaccination, immune globulin preparations,
environmental pollution and infant vaccinations. These create
a significantly different set of circumstances when the MMR
vaccine, which does not contain mercury, is administered.
We at PROVE
feel strongly that it is erroneous for the study's authors
to conclude that since the children in the Danish study did
not show an increased incidence of autism after MMR vaccine,
the same would hold true for all children. They have not satisfied
the question of the MMR vaccine's potential role as a trigger
of autism amidst other environmental factors such as previously
administered mercury-containing vaccines that have been given
to children outside of their population.
It is entirely
possible, but not yet studied by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, that a child's immune response, inhibited
by the elevated mercury levels from thimerosal-containing
vaccinations, has less ability to respond to the measles virus
in the MMR vaccine. This might be an explanation for the presence
of the measles virus cultured from the brains and insides
of 80 percent of autistic children. However, PROVE is grateful
for their epidemiological research and hopeful that it will
spur the absent, yet much needed, biological mechanism research
here in the United States.
For a more detailed
analysis of this study you can go www.safeminds.org.
Related
Articles:
More
Research Supports MMR Link to Autism
MMR
Links to 170 Cases of Autism
| 