August 29, 2000 – “Many professionals are increasingly questioning the possible link between the recent increase in the number of cases of regressive autism and other behavioral disorders in children, and the administration of combined measles-rubella-mumps vaccine ”. This is what Dr Andrew Wakefield of the Department of Medicine at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London said at an international conference on autism recently held in Montreal.
Regressive autism is characterized by normal development during infancy, followed by regression in behavior between 12 and 15 months to 3 years. Live attenuated MMR vaccine is usually given between 12 and 15 months. Symptoms of speech and language loss are accompanied by excessive thirst, bowel disturbances, self-harm and a marked preference for certain foods. We also often see allergies and recurrent respiratory tract infections.
Dr Wakefield and colleagues recently showed the presence of the measles vaccine virus in the germinal centers of the peri-intestinal lymph nodes of children with autism-related enterocolitis.1. According to data collected from parents, the combined MMR vaccine would be involved but not the monovalent measles vaccine.
Suspicions about the MMR vaccine are based, among other things, on the dramatic increase in autism cases in California and England following the introduction of the combined MMR vaccine. In California, the number of autism cases was less than 200 per year until the mid-1980s. If the trend had continued, the number would have been between 105 and 263 in 1998, but it was instead. 1685. The situation is identical in north-west London, but it is 10 years behind the observations made in California. English epidemiological research has not shown this relationship.2, but according to reviews published in The Lancet, its design prevented it from being shown.
According to Dr. Wakefield, “the direct or indirect interaction of different viruses with the host’s immune system is known to play an important role in infection and may increase the risk of subsequent disease.” Exposure to measles and mumps in a short time poses, for example, a risk of inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. “Autism-related enterocolitis may represent a new type of inflammatory bowel disease,” says Dr. Wakefield. And the developmental disorder observed may be due to an abnormality in the intestinal lining during a period when the brain is undergoing rapid development. ”
Interference between measles, rubella and mumps viruses has been known for 20 years. “We now have sufficient indications that show interference between these three viruses and which should lead to them being administered one by one. In my opinion, there is good reason to believe that the MMR vaccine is associated with the development of autism ”concluded the researcher.
Dr. Wakefield’s opinions have sparked heated correspondence and commentary for two years in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal. The least we can say is that there is controversy and that the debate sometimes becomes very technical and inaccessible to ordinary people. But whatever the case, Dr. Wakefield responds point by point to his critics and it does not appear that he has been shown to be wrong. Which doesn’t mean he’s right.
HealthPassport.net
References
Medical News, 23 Aug 2000
1. Kawashima H, Mori T, Kashiwagi Y, Takekuma K, Hoshika A, Wakefield A. Detection and sequencing of measles viruses from peripheral mononuclear cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and autism. Dig Dis Sci. 2000 Apr; 45 (4): 723-9.
2. Taylor B, Miller E, Farrington CP, Petropoulos MC, Favot-Mayaud I, Li J, Waight PA. Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: no epidemiological evidence for a causal association. Lancet. 1999 Jun 12; 353 (9169): 2026-9.
