Study Retracted Linking Autism and Vaccine

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- After the retraction of a study in the British medical journal The Lancet, there is one less link in the scientific chain connecting autism and vaccines.

Several elements of the 1998 paper done by British physician Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his team -- a study many blame for sparking the vaccine-autism debate -- have been found incorrect and retracted by The Lancet. The claims that children were “consecutively referred” and the investigations were “approved” by the local ethics committee are false, editors of The Lancet state.

The original study involved 12 children with the bowel disease chronic enterocolitis and behavioral disorders including autism. The children underwent gastroenterological, neurological and developmental assessment and review of their developmental records. According to the study, parents reported the bowel disease and the onset of behavioral symptoms were associated with measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination in eight of the 12 children. Dr. Wakefield interpreted these findings to mean the enterocolitis and developmental regression in the group of children were associated with the vaccine and possible environmental triggers.

Dr. Wakefield said in an earlier statement through Thoughtful House,
"There has been extensive replication of the finding of bowel disease in children
with autism (ASD) from five different countries. These findings have been
published in peer-reviewed journals or presented at scientific meetings."

SOURCE: The Lancet, February 2, 2010

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