Immunization Newsbriefs-2/21/01

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"Vaccine Discounted as a Link to Autism"

New York Times (www.nytimes.com) (02/20/01) P. D8

An increasing number of British parents have been refusing to have their children injected with the measles, mumps, and rubella

(MMR) vaccine for fear that it may be linked to autism, but an article published in a recent issue of the British Medical Journal says there is no link between the vaccine and the condition.  After Congress called for more research last year, scientists began a new study examining data pertaining to virtually all children born in the United Kingdom between 1988--when the MMR vaccine was first introduced--and 1993.  According to Dr. A. Kaye, the leader of the study, lines tracking the proportion of children vaccinated with MMR and the proportion diagnosed with autism have not moved in tandem since the vaccine was introduced.  The vaccination level essentially remained flat, at 97 percent, while a two- to five-year-old boy's

risk of being diagnosed with autism has risen from eight per 10,000 for those born in 1988 to 29 per 10,000 for those born in 1993.  The fact that the risk of the disease is still going up while the vaccination rate is not suggests that a link between the two does not exist.  Kaye, who is an epidemiologist with the Boston University School of Medicine, suggested that the increase

in autism diagnosis could be the result of "increased awareness of the condition among parents and general practitioners, changing diagnostic criteria, or environmental factors not yet identified."