Virological evidence does not support a link between MMR vaccine and autism
The start of the MMR controversy was born when Wakefield argued that that measles/MMR vaccination was linked to the development of autism in some children, and that there was a persistence of measles virus in autism. Afzal et al have recently published a paper which undermines the virological case for a link between MMR and austism:
The alleged link between measles/MMR vaccination and development of autism in children has been controversial for a number of years. The laboratory studies which reported the persistence of measles virus in autism cases were either carried out by a single study group or through collaborations where all investigators used clinical samples from a single laboratory source.
The findings have not been verified independently by any other study groups using assays reported to detect measles virus in autism cases with gut related complications.
This study was designed to replicate the methodology applied to gut biopsies by Uhlmannet al. [2002] to blood samples of children with confirmed autism diagnosis and MMR vaccination histories.
Their results?
None of the nucleic acid extracts of leukocytes examined produced measles virus specificDNA fragments either in the realtime QRT-PCR or in conventional RT-PCR-nested PCR amplification procedures.
Translation: measles virus does not persist in autistic children and virology does not support a link between MMR vaccine and autism.
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[...] Again, you will note the attempt to widen the discussion away from the decision to allow the TGN1412 trial into a more generalised concern about the MHRA’s performance. Note that Ann Alexander’s firm also represented families who believed their children were damaged by MMR vaccine. Their website says of MMR: “It has always seemed to us that the vital question that needed answering was whether or not MMR causes autism. That question remains unanswered.” Oh, dear. [...]
[...] The Times, and Ben Goldacre in more detail, have both pointed out some of the flaws in the unpublished study by Walker et al. that The Daily Mail and Daily Express chose to focus on. Goldacre points out that Afzal’s paper, which refuted the link between measles virus in the gut and autism and was noted on this blog way back in March, did not get widespread media coverage. [...]