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Jun 12, 11:15 PM
Attorney to take up measles vaccine-autism debate
Despite study review out this week, some experts unconvinced of safety
By Susan Jenks
FLORIDA TODAY
While a study review published this week found no connection between
childhood vaccines for mumps, measles and rubella and autism or bowel
disease, some, who believe the vaccine has harmed children, are not
convinced.
A Melbourne lawyer working with some 350 Florida families, including
several dozen from Brevard County, described Wednesday the evidence linking
the vaccines and autism as still "quite compelling."
"Ninety percent of these kids are normal at age 1, then by age 2, they
have autism," Attorney Jack Hamilton said. The first mumps, measles and
rubella vaccines normally are given soon after the child reaches age 1.
The study review was commissioned by the British Medical Association
after the number of British toddlers getting the shots began to drop,
sparking fears that measles might make a comeback.
Experts say the new review and other recent authoritative reviews show
definitively that parents should be reassured the shots are safe.
Hamilton did not comment specifically on the British study, which was
published Tuesday in the Internet version of the journal Clinical Evidence.
But he said his firm is proceeding with plans to file its first lawsuit
against makers of the vaccine in the next few weeks.
Stuart Burns, legislative director for U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Palm Bay,
was critical of the British review.
"It seems to have taken a selective look at the science on this issue,"
Burns said. "This study does nothing to dismiss the concerns of those who
have concerns about these vaccines."
Burns said Weldon, a physician, has been pushing hard the past few years
to get federal health agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health,
to duplicate the clinical conditions of a small British study done in 1998.
That study first raised the possibility of a connection between the
vaccine and developmental problems in 12 children with bowel ailments.
Since then, another larger study not included in the British review found
a possible link between the inoculations and autism.
Previously, several groups including the World Health Organization, the
U.S. Institute of Medicine, and Britain's Medical Research Council, have
reviewed evidence investigating that possible link.
However, the project reported this week is the most comprehensive.
"We looked through over 2,000 studies on millions of children, covering
50 years of research," said lead investigator Dr. Anna Donald, whose
company, Bazian Ltd., analyzes the quality of medical research. The company
was contracted by the publishing arm of the British Medical Association to
conduct the review.
"The science is very rigorous and this really does give a green light to
MMR," she said, using the shortened term for mumps, measles and rubella
vaccine. "The science on this issue is over; the scientific debate is dead."
However, Ann Coote from Jabs, a British-based support group for parents
who believe their children have been damaged by the MMR vaccine, said she
believes the issue has not been settled.
"It's not new evidence. It's only old evidence rehashed," she said.
"That's what's annoying parents -- if we've got all this money to throw away
on keeping on reviewing things, haven't we got the money to start new
research and look into it once and for all?"
Fears about the MMR vaccine intensified in 1998 after the initial British
study. The study was conducted about eight years after the children had been
vaccinated.
By February of this year, MMR immunization in British 2-year-olds had
dropped to 84 percent, well below the 95 percent specialists say is needed
to prevent measles from returning. The decline prompted the British health
authorities to launch a campaign to persuade parents the vaccine is safe.
Donald said there is no doubt more research on autism is needed, but she
would not endorse any more research into the link between autism and MMR.
"This is a terrible distraction from limited funds that need to be
looking at autism itself and not at something that has been answered more
convincingly than most things we have ever tried to look at,"she said.
Dr. John Clemens, a medical officer in the immunization program at the
World Health Organization, said WHO will continue to monitor future vaccine
safety studies but the U.N. health agency sees no need to spend more money
to further investigate a link to autism.
Dr. Neal Halsey, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns
Hopkins University, said scientists should try to determine whether measles
viruses linger in the intestines or other tissues, but the outcome of such
studies would not alter his opinion that MMR is safe and effective.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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