Scientists Retract Vaccine-Autism Link

LONDON (AP) _ Most of the scientists involved in a widely discredited 1998 study that suggested a link between childhood vaccinations and autism have renounced the conclusion. <br><br>A formal retraction

Wednesday, March 3rd 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LONDON (AP) _ Most of the scientists involved in a widely discredited 1998 study that suggested a link between childhood vaccinations and autism have renounced the conclusion.

A formal retraction is to be published this week in The Lancet medical journal by 10 of the 13 authors of the paper, which raised the possibility that the measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccine could be linked to autism.

The text was released Wednesday by The Lancet.

The study, which was conducted on 12 children, was done about eight years after the children had been vaccinated and involved parents remembering whether the autism symptoms occurred around the same time as the vaccination.

The suggestion triggered a collapse in public confidence in the vaccine. The possibility of such a link has since been discredited on scientific grounds by several rigorous subsequent studies, but some parents have clung to the findings and health officials say that vaccination rates have fallen dangerously low since its publication.

Immunization rates also fell in other European countries after the research was published.

``We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between (the) vaccine and autism, as the data were insufficient. However, the possibility of such a link was raised,'' the scientists said in the retraction.

``Consequent events have had major implications for public health. In view of this, we consider now is the appropriate time that we should together formally retract the interpretation placed on these findings in the paper,'' the group wrote.

The scientists, led by Dr. Simon Murch, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, work for institutions ranging from the Institute of Child Health in Liverpool, England, to Cambridge University.

The retraction has not been signed by the main author of the original paper, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, nor by one other author, Peter Harvey.

The group writing the retraction said it could not contact a third scientist involved with the original work, John Linnell.

Wakefield and Harvey could not be reached immediately for comment. Wakefield has maintained that the suggestion of a link between the vaccine and autism is valid, despite the findings of authoritative groups such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Institute of Medicine.

The retraction comes after the revelation last month that, at the time of the original publication, Wakefield had neglected to mention to his co-authors or the journal that he was also being paid by a legal aid service looking for evidence as to whether families could sue over the immunizations. Some of the children in the lawsuit were also in the Lancet study.

Last month, the journal called the situation a ``fatal conflict of interest'' and said it would not have published the research if the connection had been revealed.