-Caveat Lector-
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Revealed: more evidence to challenge the safety of MMR
By Lorraine Fraser
(Filed: 16/06/2002)
Scientists have found new evidence to support fears
that the MMR vaccine is causing children to develop autism and bowel disease, The
Telegraph can reveal today.
Specialists from Trinity College, Dublin, have detected the strain of measles virus
used in the MMR jab in tissue samples from the inflamed intestines of 12 children,
who each developed autism after receiving the injection.
The results will add further weight to claims that MMR may be responsible for a
rapid rise in autism in children over the past decade.
The Department of Health has repeatedly dismissed concerns about its safety,
saying epidemiological studies have failed to find a link to autism. It has infuriated
worried parents by refusing to allow the alternative of single vaccines to be
prescribed on the NHS.
The work was carried out by Prof John O'Leary, a pathologist with a record of
important discoveries in the field of virology. Although the finding does not prove
that the MRR jab caused autism and bowel disease in the children, it raises urgent
questions about the vaccine's role in their condition.
None of the children concerned had shown any sign of disease beforehand. The
discovery comes days after the Government seized on a new study to bolster its
claims that the MMR vaccine is safe.
The review, from a commercial company which lists the Department of Health as
one of its clients, did not, however, consider work published since 1998 by scientists
concerned about MMR.
Prof O'Leary's results have been made public in a precis of a scientific presentation
released ahead of a meeting of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland
next month. It was greeted with alarm by parents last night.
Jackie Fletcher, of the parents' group JABS, said the findings had profound
implications and must be taken seriously. "We have parents shouting that these
problems are occuring and what do the Government and health chiefs do - they
keep their heads buried in old reports not designed to identify these problems," she
said. "No one is listening. Why?"
Ann Hewitt, whose son Thomas, eight, has severe autism and bowel problems,
learned earlier this year that Dr O'Leary had found measles virus in the boy's gut.
She and scores of others who received the same news now want to know what is
going on.
The new results follow a study by Prof O'Leary and his colleagues, reported in
February, in which they found measles virus of unknown origin in gut biopsies from
75 of 91 autistic children with bowel problems.
Measles virus was found in only five of 70 normal youngsters. The team now claims
that the new study corroborates their earlier work linking measles virus with the
condition and "indicates the origins of the virus to be vaccine strain".
Last night Visceral, a charity set up to fund research into autism and bowel disease,
called for MMR to be suspended until studies establish just what the vaccine-strain
virus is doing. MMR, which contains live measles mumps and rubella virus, was
launched in the UK in 1988 and is given to infants at 12-15 months and four years.
The samples tested in Dublin were from some of nearly 200 youngsters diagnosed
with developmental disorder and "new variant inflammatory bowel disease" by
doctors at the Royal Free Hospital, in London, where Dr Andrew Wakefield worked
until he was ousted last December.
The controversy over MMR and autism began four years ago when Dr Wakefield
and his colleagues reported in The Lancet on 12 children with autistic problems and
bowel disease and revealed that the parents of eight of them had said their children
regressed developmentally after receiving the MMR jab.
While the genetic code of the strain of measles virus used in MMR differs only
minutely from that of the virus responsible for natural infections, Prof O'Leary and
his colleagues were able to use a commercially produced molecular probe to
distinguish the two.
The probe was designed to detect a single difference in the genetic code of the
viruses and to give off a fluorescent signal when it does so. The MMR row became
so heated this year that Tony Blair, the Prime Minister - who has refused to say
whether his two-year-old son Leo has had the MMR jab - accused Dr Wakefield and
the media of "scaremongering" on the issue.
The chief medical officer, Professor Liam Donaldson, has indicated he would rather
resign than abandon official policy on the three-in-one vaccine.
Dr Wakefield said last night: "Prof O'Leary and colleagues have now provided what
may prove to be the most important piece of evidence to date in the case against
the MMR vaccine. Parents must at the very least be given a choice of single
vaccines.
"Not to do so in the face of these data and all the other evidence we have now
published would be negligent in the extreme. It is not acceptable to assume that this
vaccine virus is an innocent bystander if your concern is for the safety of the
children."
The Department of Health said that it had no plans to review the use of MMR. "This
study, if true, does not prove that MMR causes the condition of autism just because
the virus is present in the gut. Critical will be independent testing of the teams'
samples, which has long been awaited," said a spokesman.
8 June 2002: Vaccines rise but children still at risk
24 December 2001: Pressure mounts on Blair to say if Leo had MMR jab
2 December 2001: Anti-MMR doctor is forced out
Previous story: Karachi bomb blast shows al- Qa'eda's hidden hand
Next story: Police examine suspected phone bug at Deayton's home
Related reports
health.telegraph
External links
MMR vaccine -
Department of Health
Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Jabs
Visceral
MMR - Vaccine Awareness Network
� Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
End<{{{
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