MMR - Why it is needed 

Why the MMR vaccine should be given 

Autism link discredited

There has been some controversy about the MMR vaccine following a study that was published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr Andrew Wakefield. He claimed that his initial findings appeared to show a link between the MMR vaccine and autism and bowel disease.

However, Andrew Wakefield’s findings have been completely discredited and following a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing at the beginning of 2010 he was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and was struck off the medical register.

Subsequent studies that have been carried out over the last eight years have been unable to find a link between MMR and autism or bowel disease, and there is now overwhelming evidence that MMR does not cause either condition.

MMR is needed to protect against measles, mumps and rubella which are highly infectious viral conditions that can have serious complications.

Measles can be a fatal illness and can cause a range of symptoms including: 

There have been several recent outbreaks of measles in European countries, such as in Bulgaria (2010) and France (2011). If you are planning a holiday, or you are attending a camp or music festival in mainland Europe, it is recommended that you seek advice from your GP about the MMR vaccination.

Mumps can cause viral meningitis in children. It can also cause:

Rubella can cause:

Rubella also damages unborn babies and can cause miscarriage. There is also a chance that if a woman develops rubella while pregnant, the baby might be born with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), which can cause some degree of deafness, blindness and damage to the heart or brain.

Last reviewed: 11/08/2011

Next review due: 11/08/2013

Comments

3 Comments

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Comments are personal views. Any information they give has not been checked and may not be accurate.

Lredy said on 11 April 2011

Why do boys need to be protected again Rubella? The associated risk is so very tiny and on its own seems not to fit a vaccination need. Are we vacinating boys for the greater good only? If so, why is this not made clear.

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CFinucane said on 01 February 2011

Andrew Wakefield was struck off the medical register in 2010. The GMC disciplinary panel found him guilty of serious professional misconduct on a number of charges relating to his research.

There is no proven link between MMR and autism or bowel disease

Read more about this:

* The GMC's findings (http://www.gmc-uk.org/Wakefield_SPM_and_SANCTION.pdf_32595267.pdf)

* The BMJ 2011 editorial “Wakefield’s article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent” (http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.full)

* The retraction from the Lancet (http://press.thelancet.com/wakefieldretraction.pdf)
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jonathan gems said on 12 November 2010

It's not quite accurate to state that Dr. Andrew Wakefield's research was not carried out 'correctly' as what he did was not research but a case series study i.e. a collection of clinical data resulting from a series of diagnostic tests. These data showed an association between autism and bowel disease. Wakefield and his team's finding have since been replicated and published in scores of peer-reviewed publications. As for a link between autism and MMR, this was claimed by many parents of autistic children and trumpeted by the media but was never claimed by Dr. Wakefield. He made it clear on many occasions that his team found no causal link between MMR and autism.
The reason he recommended single vaccines rather than the MMR triple vaccine was not because of a 'link with autism' but because the GlaxoSmithKline MMR vaccine had not had any placebo controlled trials.
Since 1998, however, other scientists HAVE found links between MMR and autism, which is why more and more parents are now winning awards in MMR vaccine damage cases - notably in the US. Only one case in the UK has so far has won compensation for the parents of a child brain-damaged by MMR but there are about 300 cases pending.

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