Scientists call for single inoculation option as report links MMR to autism

VICKY COLLINS

SCIENTISTS today called for parents to be given the option of having single measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for their children after a new US report showed a "highly significant association" between the controversial triple MMR vaccine and autism.

The study, which was being published today in the online version of the journal International Pediatrics, found children were five times more likely to develop neurological diseases after receiving the MMR jab than they were after receiving the diptheria, tetanus, and whooping cough vaccine (DTwP). Parents and scientists have expressed fears that both are implicated in the massive rise in autism cases in western countries.

The report said a "combined MMR policy can no longer be sustained" as a result of the findings and called for parents to be given the option of having single vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella.

Dr Mark Geier and David Geier, who carried out the research, claimed that the increased risk of autism following MMR was over five times that for DTwP.

The findings, taken from analysis of the database kept by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which logs reports of adverse reactions to vaccines within the first 30 days after inoculation, were a "significant milestone in the ongoing MMR debate", according to the report.

Action Against Autism, the Scottish pressure group, welcomed the report and said more research was needed urgently into possible links both vaccines had with autism.

"We believe that the mercury (in a preservative) in the earlier DTwP vaccine is not excreted and there is a build-up of toxins in the child's body as a result."