Under Investigation

One of the longstanding and persistent theories about how so many children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders is that the autism is a result of vaccine injections, particularly the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella).

Well, one of the chief authors of the study that launched that theory is now under investigation for fudging the facts. Indeed, many of those who signed on with that original paper have now disowned the paper and its findings.

Britain's General Medical Council is examining claims that Dr. Andrew Wakefield failed to disclose his links to autism litigators and conducted the study without proper ethical approval. Wakefield denies any misconduct.

Wakefield's study suggested that the combined measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is administered throughout the world, could put children at risk of autism or bowel disease. The finding published in The Lancet medical journal in 1998, and the subsequent media coverage, led many parents to refuse to vaccinate their children.

But the study was soon discredited, and 10 of its 13 authors have since renounced its conclusions. The Lancet also said it should not have published the study, saying Wakefield's links to litigation against the manufacturers of the MMR vaccine were a "fatal conflict of interest."

In addition to Wakefield, two other authors of the paper - John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch - are being investigated by the medical council.

Numerous studies have concluded that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism or bowel disease. Wakefield suggested that vaccines be administered separately. The vast majority of the medical establishment supports the combined vaccine's use.

"It is one of the safest, best-studied vaccines," said Dr. Philip Minor, head of virology at Britain's National Institutes of Biological Standards and Control. Doctors warn that the MMR controversy has led many parents to underestimate the dangers of the diseases. Last April, for the first time in more than a decade, a 13-year-old boy died from measles in Britain.

Multiple studies done after the fact have also dispelled the rumors, but that will not stop people from withholding various vaccines from their children believing it to be the cause of autism.

Those parents are instead exposing their children to the possibility of suffering from a range of childhood ailments, including polio, which are completely preventable.