Autism rise down to better detection

MMR JAB GIVEN ALL CLEAR

A link between the rise in autism and the MMR jab has been rejected by a study which also claims to have found evidence that the triple vacine is safe.

Researchers believe that some parents who blamed the measles, mumps, rubella multiple vaccine for autism may have been influenced by the media.

Professor Brent Taylor and colleagues from the Royal Free Hospital and University College Medical School in London argue that the apparent rise since 1979 is not real.

Scare

Writing in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, they say the scare goes hand-in-hand with the MMR scare.

The researchers say the increase in incidence was probably due to "increased recognition, a greater willingness to accept the diagnostic label, and better recording systems".

In 2001, the Autism Research Unit at the University of Sunderland reported a tenfold increase in autism rates over the previous decade.

A possible link between MMR and autism was first put forward in 1997 following anecdotal evidence from parents.

Uncertainty

The following year Dr Andrew Wakefield, then also based at the Royal Free, created a scare by claiming to have found a link between regressive autism and bowel problems possibly relating to the vaccine.

Dr Wakefield argued that the MMR vaccine should be withdrawn because of uncertainty about its safety.

Professor Taylor's team found that before the scare parents cited factors such as domestic stress, seizures or viral illness as triggers for their children's autism.

But after 1997 "parents were more likely to attribute regression to vaccination, especially the MMR vaccine".

Government health experts have insisted there is no proven link, and warned parents not to put their children at risk by refusing to give them the MMR.