Recently there has been considerable controversy over whether children should be vaccinated for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) viruses.  This controversy has arisen primarily from one paper written by Dr. Andrew Wakefield.  In this paper he speculates that there is a possibility the vaccine for these viruses can cause the pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) autism.  Since this paper was published, there has been a growing amount of research that has found no causal connection.  Additionally, Wakefield’s ethics concerning the supporting research have come under scrutiny.  After reviewing the statistics for the number of cases of MMR in the U.S. over the last century, it is obvious that allowing Wakefield’s paper to decrease the administration of the vaccine for MMR would be disastrous.  In summary, although some have speculated that autism is caused by the MMR vaccine, this claim is unsupported by the scientific evidence and should be discarded as a reason to withhold the MMR vaccination from children.

In 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, with thirteen of his colleagues, published a paper that suggested the MMR vaccine may cause autism.  In this paper Wakefield states that he and his team had identified a “chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuropsychiatric dysfunction” (1998, p. 641).  In most cases, the parents of the twelve children investigated had indicated most of their children developed symptoms after the MMR vaccination had been administered (1998, p. 641).  This observation led to what Wakefield thought could be a causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism and to an international dispute over whether the MMR vaccine should be administered to young children.

However, the evidence that suggests the MMR vaccine may cause autism is speculative, at best.  In 2001, DeStefano and Chen published a paper reviewing the research for this supposed connection and concluded that it was not persuasive.  Specifically, they point out that in Wakefield’s study there was no control and experiment group (p. 832), the test for causality was false (pp. 835-836), and subsequent experiments by other researchers with control and experiment groups found no correlation between the MMR vaccination and autism (p. 833).  In one particular study, 498 individuals diagnosed with autism and vaccinated with the MMR vaccine were investigated for some indication of a connection between the two (Taylor, 1999).  The conclusion was simple:  there is no connection (Taylor, 1999, p. 2029).  Even those who support the work of Wakefield agree that the connection is speculative (Hendrickson, 2002, p. 2052).  Based on these findings it’s difficult to understand how one researcher could determine a connection in 12 out of 12 cases when these other researchers were unable to find a connection in hundreds of cases.  Indeed, the entire medical community seems to be saying that there is no connection.  Finally, Andrew Wakefield was summoned for a hearing before the General Medical Council (GMC) for ethical malpractice regarding the research that supports the paper in which he suggests there is a possible causal connection between the MMR vaccine and autism (General Medical Council, n.d.).  Why would the GMC have reasonable cause to conduct this hearing?  Surely, there has to be something questionable about Wakefield’s behavior for this to occur.  If his ethical behavior is under scrutiny, perhaps his results should be as well.  In any case, the scientific community agrees that the results of Wakefield’s study and his ethical behavior are on shaky ground.

This leaves one last point to be made:  not vaccinating for MMR is not worth the risk.  Of these three viruses—measles, mumps, and rubella—measles is the only one that is fatally dangerous.  According to A. Parker (2009), the number of reported cases of measles in the United States has decreased from 894,134 in 1941 to fewer than 150 each year since 1997.  With such a dramatic decrease in the reported cases, it is obvious the MMR vaccine works.  Sadly, measles continues to be a leading cause of death among young children worldwide (World Health Organization, 2008).  As a result, it is widely agreed among medical authorities that vaccinating for MMR must continue to maintain reduced deaths caused by the measles virus.  In fact, the American Red Cross, World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and United Nations Foundation formed a partnership to reduce the number of measles related deaths worldwide (Center for Disease Control, 2009).  Autism, on the other hand, rarely, if ever, causes death.  Arguably, not vaccinating for MMR makes little sense when the consequences are considered.

After reviewing the evidence and the scientific community’s collective opinion, this author has concluded that there is no credible scientific evidence to support the claim that the MMR vaccine will lead to autism.  In fact, even if the vaccine caused autism in very rare cases, not vaccinating for MMR is not worth the risk of MMR spreading through unvaccinated children and resulting in many deaths.  Therefore, the very remote possibility of causing a neuropsychiatric dysfunction, such as autism, by vaccinating children for MMR should not be used as a reason not to vaccinate for MMR.
 

References

Center for Disease Control. (2009 May). Measles mortality reduction and regional global measles elimination - program in brief- 508 compliant. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncird/progbriefs/downloads/global-measles-elim.pdf.

DeStefano, F. & Chen, R. (2001). Autism and measles-mumps-rubella vaccination: controversy laid to rest?. CNS Drugs, 15(11), 831-837. Retrieved July 28, 2009, from MEDLINE with  Full Text database.

General Medical Council. (n.d.). General Medical Council Press Office. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from http://www.gmcpressoffice.org.uk/apps/news/events/detail.php?key=3657.

Hendrickson, B. & Turner, J. (2002, June 15). MMR vaccination, ileal lymphoid nodular hyperplasia, and pervasive developmental disorder. The Lancet, 359(9323), 2051-2052.  Retrieved July 30, 2009, from MEDLINE with Full Text database.

Parker, A. & Uzicanin, A. (2009). Measles (rubeola). Retrieved August 2, 2009, from http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2010/chapter-2/measles.aspx.

Taylor, B., Miller, E., Farrington, C. P., et al. (1999 June 12). Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: no epidemiological evidence for a causal association. The Lancet  353(9169), 2026-2029.

Wakefield, A., Murch S., Anthony A., et al. (1998). Ileal lymphoid nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and regressive developmental disorder in children. The Lancet 351(9103), 637-641.

World Health Organization. (2008). Measles. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/index.html.