| |
|
|
Ask Dr. Sue
MEASLES VACCINE AND AUTISM
Dear Dr. Sue,
I've been hearing a lot about the MMR shot causing
autism. I don't want to risk my child getting
that! Should she get the MMR shot when she's a
year old, or skip it for now until more information is
available?
Concerned Mom
Dear Mom,
The autism scare initially came from a study of only 12
children in Ireland, in 1998. When reports of this
study became known in Ireland, many people were afraid
to have the vaccine given to their children. The
result was predictable; a measles epidemic. In the
first nine months of 2000 there were 1523 measles cases
in Dublin, compared to 148 for the entire year of 1999.
In the days before the measles vaccine was available,
nearly all of us had the disease. Just because it
was common, however, doesn't mean it was innocent.
Between 1953 and 1963 there were three to four million
measles cases and 450 deaths due to measles in the U.S.
each year. After the vaccine became available
there was a 99% reduction in cases of measles.
Most measles deaths are due to breathing or brain
complications. In addition, inflammation of the
brain, which often results in permanent brain damage,
occurs in 1 out of every 1000 measles cases. And
finally, there is a very rare but tragic complication
that causes progressive loss of brain function,
personality changes, seizures and eventually death many
years after infection with the measles virus.
When the autism study of 1998 and one other study that
looked at twelve U.S. cases were examined carefully,
there appeared to be problems with the study methods
that could contribute to inaccurate conclusions.
These studies have been followed by a number of larger
studies, which were unable to reproduce their results.
The United Kingdom Medical Research Council, the U.S.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US
Food and Drug Administration have all confirmed that
there is no scientific evidence at this time to a link
between measles and autism. This link has been
looked for in a number of ways, including:
-
Looking at the number of children
with autism who had received the MMR vaccine
compared to children without autism who received it
(the rates were very similar); and
-
Looking at the number of new cases of
autism in several countries after the MMR was
introduced there (no increase in autism cases).
Many respected and well-trained scientists oversee the
investigations into vaccine safety, and their careful
scrutiny doesn't end once the vaccine is licensed and is
being used on our children. The Rotavirus vaccine
is a good example. Rotavirus causes the most
severe diarrheal illness in children, and is responsible
for about forty deaths in the U.S. each year. It
is one of the leading causes of child death in
developing countries. The Rotavirus vaccine was
received with great enthusiasm by the medical community,
after it passed all of the safety testing required by
the Food and Drug Administration. Once it was
licensed and was being given in much greater numbers,
however, rare cases of intussusception, a type of
intestinal blockage, started showing up. This
disorder was being seen in slightly greater numbers
after Rotavirus vaccine than in children who had not
received it. The vaccine was therefore quickly
discontinued. The same officials recommended a
change from the oral polio vaccine (which caused very
rare cases of paralysis) to the inactivated polio shot,
even though the oral vaccine was more effective overall.
The risk of catching polio naturally had finally dropped
below the risk of receiving the oral vaccine.
These investigative groups have also looked carefully
into any possible relationship between vaccines and
autism, asthma, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and SIDS,
and have been unable to find a connection. If they
had, the vaccines would have been discontinued.
There is no existing political or financial agenda that
would support putting all of our children at risk.
And the fear that regulatory bodies are controlled by
the large drug companies who make vaccines is proved
unjustifiable by the Rotavirus vaccine story. When
even a small increased risk to our children is proven,
the wheels turn very quickly to remove that risk.
There are so many things that you can't protect your
child from; please protect her from those that you can,
including measles!
 
|
|
