'No link' between MMR and autism

The University College's Royal Free Hospital in London, UK, which lastyear declared that there may be a link between the combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and a syndrome characterized by autism and inflammatory bowel disease (Marketletter March 16, 1998), have found in a new study that the rate of autism is no higher among children inoculated with the vaccine than those who do not receive the shot.

A different group of researchers at the hospital, who identified 498 children with autism from government health registers, found no evidence to support a connection with the MMR vaccine. While the study showed the number of cases of autism has been increasing since 1979, there was no sign of a sharp rise following introduction of the vaccine in 1988.

The study did not rule out the possibility of a rare idiosyncratic response to MMR, but noted that if such an association does occur, it could not be identified in this large UK sample. In the study, published in The Lancet (June 12), the researchers expressed hope that the results will reassure patients and restore confidence in the vaccine.