Medical Correspondent (Daily Mail Feb 6, 2001
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk>www.dailymail.co.uk
PARENTS taking legal action because they believe MMR jabs
triggered autism in their children are being backed by the eminent doctor whose
research was at the centre of the 1995 Pill scare.
Public health expert Professor Walter Spitzer, who has
studied the complete medical records of 505 children, says the odds favour a
link between the triple measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and the
development of autism.
The emeritus professor of epidemiology at McGill
University, Montreal, will be supporting the parents_ case due to begin at the
High Court in spring. His involvement
is highly embarrassing for Government health officials who last encountered
Professor Spitzer when he attacked them for triggering a panic over the
contraceptive Pill.
Professor Spitzer said they misused unpublished research
to warn women that certain brands of Pill were more likely to trigger blood
clots. Within hours he flew from Canada to England to defend his work.
Four years later the Government_s medical advisers did a
U-turn on the controversial advice _ after it had led to an estimated 29,000
extra abortions.
Professor Spitzer has now agreed to give evidence on
behalf of parents suing MMR manufacturers over adverse reactions such as bowel
disease or autism which were never officially reported by doctors, it is
claimed.
An estimated 850 families have been granted legal help to
take action under the Consumer Protection Act against the drug companies
Aventis Pasteur, Merck and Co. SmithKllne Beecham and SmithKline and French
Laboratories.
Research by the professor, who specialises in the
statistical analysis of
public health issues, suggests UK safety data on MMR is
unreliable because
many doctors failed to make reports on side effects using
the yellow card
system to flag up
_There are a lot of reports that did not go into the
Medicines Control Agency either because the attending physician did not
recognise the diagnosis of autism or did not think It warranted a yellow card,_
he told the doctors_ magazine Pulse.
Professor Spitzer said: _I_m not 100 per cent convinced
there is a causal
link between MMR and autism but I think the odds favour a
link, sometimes
strongly._
The professor said three factors supported a link
including a very steep rise in autism which coincided with the launch of
MMR _practically drowning_ the market for single vaccines in several countries.
Further research was emerging to provide a. plausible
biological and clinic link between the combined vaccine and the disorder, he
said.
Finally, the vaccine manufacturers and regulatory
authorities had failed to conduct properly designed post-marketing safety
studies.
Professor Spitzer is an eminent if occasionally
controversial figure in the world of medicine.
One person who trained with him said: _He is very
aggressive and he does not stand for fools -but the key thing is that he has a
brilliant mind.
What he says counts. People sit up and listen to him._
The Department of Health is launching a £3million
advertising campaign. It aims to reassure parents, doctors and other health
professionals about the safety of the vaccine.
A spokesman said: _Repeated studies have given MMR a clean
bill of health _
it is the safest way of protecting children against these
potentially
life-threatening diseases._
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