New research on autism and measles "proves nothing"

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7333.315a

BMJ 2002;324:315 ( 9 February )

News

New research on autism and measles "proves nothing"

Lynn Eaton, BMJ
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Controversial new research showing that many children with both autism and bowel disease have the measles virus in their intestinaltissue has fuelled further debate over the possible link betweenthe illness and the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine $---$ althoughno such link is proved in theresearch.

The paper, to be published shortly by the specialist journal Molecular Pathology (which is co-owned by the BMJ PublishingGroup) and already available on its website (http://mp.bmjjournals.com),was highlighted by a television programme (Panorama, BBC1, 3 Feb)on the safety of the MMRvaccine.

It looked at tissue samples of 91 children from the Royal Free Hospital, London, who had both autism and inflammatory boweldisease. Seventy five of the samples tested positive for the presenceof measles virus in intestinal tissue, compared with five of 70controls.

Professor John O'Leary, of the department of pathology at Coombe Women's Hospital, . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

McGreevy, D. (2005). Risks and benefits of the single versus the triple MMR vaccine: how can health professionals reassure parents?. The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health 125: 84-86 [Abstract]

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