Further studies needed - letter

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Daily Telegraph Letters
Re: Further studies needed
Date: 3 May 2002
SIR - As an immunopathologist, and a concerned grandfather, I have been following with considerable interest the MMR controversy (Features, Apr. 30). The public are increasingly assured that there are no grounds for concern about the triple vaccine because numerous studies have apparently shown no evidence of an association between MMR vaccination and the increased incidence of autism and inflammatory bowel disease in young children.

What is not made clear, however, is that virtually all of these findings are based purely on epidemiological studies. The Government is putting £2.5 million into new research, but focusing first on a major epidemiological study - "top of the action list" as you report - instead of the serious immunopathological work that is needed.

As far as I am aware, no serious immunopathological study has been undertaken to establish whether a pathogenic factor can be identified in that small minority of children who react adversely to the MMR jab. It is possible that a small proportion of children, owing to some defect in their immune responsiveness, react adversely to the overloading of their immune systems by the presentation of three viruses simultaneously.

Such a situation might lead to the formation of a pathogenic complex, which colleagues and I showed in the late 1980s and early 1990s could be found at abnormally high levels in the circulations of adults with inflammatory bowel diseases.

It should be recognised that those same antibodies (immunoglobulins) that are produced in large amounts against infective agents as a result of vaccination can sometimes undergo structural changes resulting in the induction of deleterious reactions, among which the occurrence of inflammatory bowel disease is a possibility as is, perhaps, autism.

It is to be hoped that these serious immunopathological studies will be undertaken as soon as possible on those children who have reacted adversely to MMR vaccination. The findings should not only resolve the present impasse, but might also point to a means of predicting which children are likely to react adversely to the triple MMR vaccine.

From:
Prof Denis Stanworth, Malvern, Worcs

 
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