Researchers retract on autism, measles vaccine link

A 1998 study that suggested a link between autism and the MMR childhood vaccine was wrong, according to the British medical journal the Lancet, which published the finding and withdrew it last week.

Ten of the study's 12 authors wrote in the Lancet that they "retract an interpretation" that autism and inflammatory bowel disease were related to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

"No causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism, as data was insufficient," the 10 scientists said. "However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications for public health."

Many parents in the UK didn't have their children vaccinated in the wake of the study. Last month the Lancet said that lead researcher Andrew Wakefield didn't disclose that he was doing another study at the time for lawyers who sued vaccine makers. He had said in 1998 that the vaccine should be withdrawn because of safety concerns.

No study has found a link between the MMR vaccine and the autism and bowel disease, according to the UK's National Health Service website. More than 500 million doses of the drug have been used worldwide since the early 1970s.

Richard Horton, the journal's editor, called for the British government to create a Council of Research Integrity that would investigate future allegations of misconduct.

There may still be a link between autism and bowel disease, Horton wrote. "The discovery of a possible link between bowel disease and autism is a serious scientific idea, and one that deserves further investigation," he said.

Wakefield, writing in the Lancet, said that an allegation that some of the same children participated in both of his studies "completely misrepresents the facts." The studies were separate, he had no knowledge of litigation involving the children, and the results didn't give new information to lawyers, he said. He at no time encouraged parents of autistic children who had had the MMR vaccine to sue, he said.

Companies that make the vaccines, such as Europe's biggest drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, and France's Aventis SA, as well as Merck & Co., which sells the drug in the United States, have been sued by parents who say the vaccine caused autism in their children.

More than 800,000 children die each year from measles alone worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and the combined MMR injection is the safest way to prevent all three diseases, the UK's National Health Service said.

Autism, when a child has problems communicating and interacting with others, was first noticed in 1943. As many as six children in 1,000 in the United States are autistic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1.5 million Americans may have some form of the condition, which affects more boys than girls.