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MMR: parents deserve an answer
There may be an explanation for the apparent link between MMR and autism, says David Pollard
If there is no scientific evidence of a link between the MMR vaccination and autism, then why is there so much anecdotal evidence from parents that there is a connection? We may have an answer.
Research published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests there may actually be a connection between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella jab. Before this statement causes a renewal of decade-long hostilities between the two camps - parents shouting 'I told you so', and devotees of medical orthodoxy expressing outrage - read on.
There are two important factors: first, symptoms of autism tend to develop rather slowly and are not always immediately apparent; second, the report from the AAP shows that symptoms of autism may be reduced by fever.
Because mild fever can occur after an MMR vaccination - just as with other jabs - the sufferer's symptoms may therefore diminish while the fever lasts. So it is plausible that parents who have not previously noticed any symptoms might become aware of them once the fever abates and the symptoms return.
These parents might quite reasonably be convinced that the vaccination caused the autism. And they would not be swayed by the medical profession saying there is no association at all.
It is bad science to deny any connection and dismiss the parents' evidence as 'urban myth': it is tantamount to telling the parents they are lying when they are not. Medical science must explain the anecdotal evidence. If the report seems reasonable, or even only plausible, then more research is needed.
Only this month, a study at Great Ormond Street and three other hospitals found no evidence to support the theory that the MMR jab can damage the intestine and in turn cause autism. Like previous scientific reports, it will bring little comfort to those parents who believe there is a link. ·
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The research was conducted by Laura Curran et al. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/120/6/e1386.pdf
A similar finding by R.M. Cotterill was noted in Nature in 1985.
If I seem to have implied that the MMR jab causes autism, then I apologise for not being clear.
The point I wished to make is that some parents may quite reasonably come to think it does - because symptoms may partially disappear when a fever starts and then return in full quite quickly as it abates. If this re-appearance of symptoms is the first indication that they have noticed, then it's not unreasonable that they might think the autistic symptoms, which they first recognised following a fever caused by the jab, were associated with it.
What research? The AAP's website says MMR is safe. I imagine any new research contradicting this and they would make that clear pretty sharpish.
The lack of any detail in this article is a pretty good indicator as to its unreliability.
What utter bollocks. There is no evidence to support a correlation between MMR or the measles vaccine and autism; there have been several significant studies since Wakefield's misleading article in the Lancet and none have found a correlation. I am the parent of a boy diagnosed with an ASD and I have researched the matter thoroughly. It is bad science to ignore reputable studies and imply a connection where there is none; the theory has been entirely discredited and lives on only because of fear and doubt spread by badly informed articles like this one. We are learning more about the causes but in the meantime as well as children with ASD, we now have children being crippled by measles in our own cities because parents are wrongly avoiding the jab.