By Richard Woodman

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday a recent study showing a link between persistent measles virus infection in children and a new form of bowel disease did not mean the disorder was related to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.

As controversy over the safety of MMR continues to rage in Britain, a Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We will consider this research as we always do. But it does not show a link with MMR vaccine."

The latest research has been posted in full on the Internet at http:/www.molpath.com after some findings were broadcast during a BBC television investigation of MMR on Sunday. It will officially appear in the April issue of Molecular Pathology.

The study's authors include Andrew Wakefield, whose work at London's Royal Free Hospital in 1998 first raised fears that MMR vaccination may trigger bowel disorders and autism in susceptible children.

The study was set up to investigate the presence of persistent measles virus in children with ileocolonic lymphonodular hyperplasis, a new form of inflammatory bowel disease that has been described in a group of children with developmental disorders.

Results showed that 75 of 91 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of ileocolonic lymphonodular hyperplasis and enterocolitis, an intestinal inflammation, were positive for measles virus in their intestinal tissue compared with five of 70 control patients.

"The data confirm an association between the presence of measles virus and gut pathology in children with developmental disorder," the paper states.

In a statement, the study's lead author, Professor John O'Leary, molecular pathologist at Coombe Women's Hospital, Dublin, stressed the research did not set out to investigate the role of MMR in the development of either bowel disease or developmental disorder.

"No conclusions about such a role could, or should be, drawn from our findings," he said.

An accompanying editorial also advised against jumping to any hasty conclusions about MMR.

"We are all aware of the public unease about a potential link between vaccination and autism or bowel inflammatory conditions, with some hundreds of parents of afflicted children undertaking legal action against the manufacturers," it said.

But it added that it would be "entirely wrong" to jump to the conclusion that the measles component of MMR causes the colitis or development disorder.

"Most, if not all diseases, are multifactorial and the data could equally be interpreted as indicating that the colitis or developmental disorder causes the persistence of the measles."

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