Study: US scientists back autism link to MMR

Study Finds MMR Is Linked With Autism
By Lucy Johnston for the Sunday Express
http://www.express.co.uk

Excerpts from article
Scientists have confirmed the controversial link between MMR and autism.

The findings corroborate research by Dr Andrew Wakefield, discredited by the Department of Health for suggesting the combined measles, mumps and rubella jab may have contributed to rises in the disorder.

The new study, led by Dr Arthur Krigsman, a child gastroenterologist from New York University School of Medicine, has led to calls for an immediate overhaul of Britain's child vaccination programme.
The research, to be presented at the International Conference forAutism Research in Montreal next week, is still going on but, unusuallyearly findings have been released because of the significance.

The study, which covers 275 children and is being carried out atdifferent medical centres in America, found serious intestinal inflammationin autistic children identical to that described by Dr Wakefield and hiscolleagues eight years ago.

Gut biopsy tissue from 82 of these children reveals that 85 per centhave evidence of the measles virus in their inflamed intestines. Fourteen have so far been confirmed by more stringent DNA tests.

The news will be a huge embarrassment for the Department of Healthwhich rubbished Dr Wakefield's research on the grounds it was uncorroborated"bad science". Steve Walker, assistant professor at Wake Forest University Medical Centre, North Carolina, who analysed the gut samples, said the workmirrored Dr Wakefield's study.

"We're very excited by our findings," he said. "Wakefield's study was criticised because it lacked replication. Our goal is to see if the finding was real. Preliminary results show that it was."

Just as Dr Wakefield discovered in his work on the children with apreviously unidentified bowel condition, Dr Krigsman's patients had all inexplicably deteriorated, losing language and other skills at around 12 to 18 months of age.

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US scientists back autism link to MMR
By Beezy Marsh and Sally Beck
(Filed: 28/05/2006)

The measles virus has been found in the guts of children with a form of autism, renewing fears over the safety of the MMR jab.

American researchers have revealed that 85 per cent of samples taken from autistic children with bowel disorders contain the virus. The strain is the same as the one used in the measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccine.

The findings will spark fresh concern about MMR, because they back theories of a causal link between the jab, autism and painful gut disorders suffered by a number of autistic children.

Full article at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/28/wmmr28.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/28/ixnews.html

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:

www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com

http://www.autismconcepts.com/