The facts behind conflicting medical claims

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http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1344392002

The facts behind conflicting medical claims

ANALYSIS

TARA WOMERSLEY HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

 
THE controversy that has raged over MMR means parents face what has become a difficult dilemma - whether or not their children should receive the jab.

The MMR vaccine, made from live but weakened forms of measles, mumps and rubella and introduced in the UK in 1988, was first given to children in America in 1975. Before 1988, children in Britain received a single jab against measles but the rubella vaccination was only given to young girls and there was no vaccination programme for mumps.

After it was introduced, the MMR jab was given to children at 13 months, with a second dose before they go to school in case they did not respond the first time around.

In 1998, Dr Andrew Wakefield, then a consultant gastro-enterologist at London’s Royal Free Hospital, suggested a link between the MMR jab, autism and inflammatory bowel disease. Dr Wakefield wrote a scientific paper in the Lancet saying he had seen 12 young patients referred to the hospital’s paediatric gastro-enterology department with bowel problems including diarrhoea and stomach pain.

At the same time, he noted that the children had also begun to lose many of their acquired mental and social skills even though they had developed normally up to this point. He added that nine out of the 12 went on to be diagnosed with autism and in all but one of these children the symptoms had started only a few days after their MMR jab.

Since then, Dr Wakefield claims to have found the measles virus in the inflamed tissues in the gut of children who have developed autism after the MMR vaccine.

Both an expert group which reported to the Scottish Executive and the Department of Health in London concluded that the scientific evidence did not support a link between MMR and autism.

The expert group set up by the Executive reported its findings last May, two months after Scotland’s first outbreak of measles in two years. Adults and children were affected in the outbreak in Fife. The same month, Tony Blair became embroiled in a row over the jab after he refused to disclose whether his son Leo had received the triple vaccine.

A report published in August by American scientists provided fresh evidence to link MMR with autism. Researchers at Utah State University analysed blood samples from 125 autistic children and 92 other children. They found the measles component of the vaccine caused an unusual anti-measles response in 75 autistic children, but not in the others.

The British Medical Association stresses that MMR vaccine is safe. It is feared there is a possibility that children could die if not vaccinated and that separating vaccines puts children at risk of mumps, measles and rubella during periods when they are waiting for their next jab.

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ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.