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Study allays fears about vital vaccine

Sep 12, 2008 | Associated Press | Daily News

A new study has found no evidence of a link between autism and the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Researchers hope the findings will help boost the rate of immunization against these illnesses amid some parental concerns about a potential link.

The research published last week in the online version of the journal Public Library of Science in the US sought to test results of a 1998 study led by Dr Andrew Wakefield of the Royal Free Hospital in Britain, which said there was a link between autism and the vaccine.

Wakefield, whose research also appeared in Lancet, later officially pulled his findings.

Researchers at Columbia University in New York and at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) looked for signs of genetic markers of the measles virus in intestinal tissue samples of 25 children with autism who also had intestinal troubles.

They compared the samples with 13 children of the same age who did not have autism but did have intestinal ailments.

The tissue was analyzed by three labs which did not know which group of children the samples were taken from.

"This study provides strong evidence against association of autism with persistent (measles virus) MV RNA in the GI tract or MMR exposure," the authors say.

Parental concerns about potential vaccine risks have caused some people not to have their children vaccinated, leading to a major surge in measles outbreaks in the United States and Europe, the CDC says.