Vaccines and Autism

This news is come from London biochemist, Nicholas Chadwick that eager to hear of what the scientists say. He was a graduate student in lab of gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, had called a press conference to unveil the study result.

He said had discovered a new syndrome that believed was triggered by MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccines. Eight of 12 children in their study, being published in the respected journal The Lancet, had found severe intestinal inflammation, with symptoms striking six days, on average, after the children received of MMR. The reason for all the hoopla was nine of children in the study also had autism, and the tragic disease had seized them between one and 14 days after their MMR jab.

The vaccine had damaged the intestine, in particular, the measles part had caused serious inflammation, allowing harmful proteins to leak from the gut into the bloodstream and from there to the brain, where they damaged neurons in a way that triggered autism. The scientist note on their paper don’t have a prove an association between MMR and autism, so he said that this was a moral issue until been resolved.

For months have extracting genetic material from children’s gut biopsies, looking for evidence of measles from MMR. There was a crucial first link in the chain of argument connecting the MMR and autism, the measles virus infects the gut, causing inflammation and leakage, then gut leakage lets neurotoxin compounds into the blood and brain.

That's strange, thought Chadwick. For months he had been extracting genetic material from children's gut biopsies, looking for evidence of measles from the MMR. That was the crucial first link in the chain of argument connecting the MMR to autism: the measles virus infects the gut, causing inflammation and leakage, then gut leakage lets neurotoxin compounds into the blood and brain.

But these studies and others supporting the link between autism and the MMR were nothing compared with an extraordinary step that had been taken by the U.S. government and by one of the country's leading medical organizations.

On July 7, 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the U.S. Public Health Service issued a warning about the preservative in many vaccines. Called thimerosal, it contains 49.6 percent ethylmercury by weight and had been used in vaccines since the 1930s, including the diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis (DTP) and Haemophilus influenzae (Hib) vaccines (but not the MMR). The experts tried to be reassuring, saying in a statement there are "no data or evidence of any harm" from thimerosal. But, they continued, children's cumulative exposure to mercury from vaccines "exceeds one of the federal safety guidelines" for mercury. (By 2003, most childhood vaccines did not contain thimerosal, though flu vaccines still did.) The AAP statement did not mention autism.