MMR kids 'five times more likely to develop autism'

FEARS over the safety of the MMR vaccine were re-ignited yesterday, after a controversial study claimed it put children at a much greater risk of neurological disorders.

The research said children were five times more likely to suffer from autism after receiving the MMR jag than after receiving the combined DTP vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough).

The American scientists behind the study, published online in the medical journal International Pediatrics, added that there was also a marked increase in other neurological disorders, such as brain damage or mental retardation, in children who received the MMR vaccine as opposed to in those who received the DTP jag.

Experts rounded on yesterday’s study, claiming it was seriously flawed because researchers had "compared apples with oranges".

The study looked at the reactions to almost 25 million first doses of MMR and around 63 million doses of DTP given between 1994 and 2000. There were 133 reports of suspected neurological problems among MMR recipients, with 29 reports of autism among boys and eight reports among girls. The relative risk of autism from the vaccine was worked out to be five times higher than compared to DTP.

But Dr Charles Saunders, the chairman of the British Medical Association’s Scottish public health medicine committee, said: "The developmental problems described in the study are of themselves rare. The two groups in the study are not comparable. Children would normally receive the DTP vaccination at under 6 months, while MMR is given at 15 months and the reactions looked for - permanent brain damage, autism, cerebellar ataxia, and mental retardation - would not become evident until the age of 15 months or more."

And Dr Claire Bramley, an epidemiologist working in immunisation at the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health, said: "There was no proper control group in the study and children who had MMR were inappropriately compared with those who had received the DTP."

She added that the research was also flawed because it focussed on a database reporting adverse reactions that had yet to be fully investigated.

But Dr Mark Geier, a geneticist who led the study, wrote: "It is clear that with the potentially globally destructive effects of natural measles, mumps and rubella infections that continued vaccination is necessary, but improvements in the MMR vaccine is needed to improve its safety."

He suggested the vaccination should continue but with a jab that contains a killed-off version of the virus rather than a live one to cut the risk of adverse reaction.

A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency, said yesterday: "Using a live version of viruses stimulates the immune response in children so if they come across it in later life their body is already protected and immune to these diseases."

She added: "The reason that we can be so sure of the safety of MMR is because it has been so widely used and we do not know much about single or killed vaccines."