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July 25, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“Measles Vaccine Not Linked to Autism”

Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (07/24/03)

A review of previous studies of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine by Dr. Kumanan Wilson of Toronto General Hospital and colleagues indicated that the vaccine does not increase the risk of developing autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), the category of illness that includes autism.  Published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the study looked at 12 tests from five nations, with one test comparing the autism rates of vaccinated children against those of unvaccinated children and six other studies watching how vaccinations rates had changed over time.  All of the studies suggested that there is no link between increased numbers of vaccinations and increased diagnoses of any ASD illness, and several studies noted that ASD symptoms had arisen before administration of the MMR vaccine, eliminating the possibility of a link between the two.