MMR vaccine safe, say experts

RESEARCH by experts from all over the world further debunked any link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

The US-led findings come amid a surge in measles cases fuelled by children left unvaccinated.

Years of research with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine have concluded that it does not cause autism. But some parents’ fears persist, partly because of the 1998 British study that linked the vaccine with a subgroup of autistic children who also had serious gastrointestinal problems.

That study reported the measles virus was lingering in the children’s bowels.

Only now have researchers rigorously re-tested that finding, taking samples of youngsters’ intestines to hunt for signs of virus with the most modern genetic technology.

The international team, which included researchers who first raised the issue, reported there was no evidence that MMR played any role.

“Although in fact there was evidence that this vaccine was safe in the bulk of the population, it had not been previously assessed with respect to kids with autism and GI complaints,” said Dr Ian Lipkin of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, who led the work published in PLoS One, the online journal of the Public Library of Science.

“We are confident there is no link between MMR and autism,” he said.

Co-author Dr Larry Pickering of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said: “I feel very certain that it is a safe vaccine.”

Measles, a highly infectious virus, once routinely affected thousands of children a year and killed hundreds, until childhood vaccinations made it a rarity.