West Palm Beach, Florida (JusticeNewsFlash.com – Health Report) – Recent research in the Public Library of Science Journal found that there is no link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) and autism. There has been no evidence found to suggest that the ‘gastrointestinal pathology consistently preceded autism, or that MMR preceded either autism or GI pathology.’ Researchers from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Massachusetts General Hospital and Trinity College Dublin in Ireland set out to test the relation found in a 1998 small British study. The current research uses tissue biopsies taken from the bowels of children with autism and GI problems and compared them to age-matched control children who had no developmental delays, but were undergoing bowel biopsies for GI disturbances. In addition, researchers analyzed the theory that the measles RNA could grow in the intestinal tract and cause inflammation that would make the bowel more permeable. It was believed that once the bowel was more permeable, the virus could enter the circulation system and then travel to the central nervous system, where it might play a role in the development of autism.

Yet, the tests showed only traces of measles genetic material in the bowels of one boy with autism and one without. That doesn’t prove virus never temporarily lodged in more children, but it dispels the earlier studies. Furthermore, results showed that ‘only one child out of the 25 children with autism and one in the control group of 13 children in the new study showed slight levels of measles RNA.’ According to the CDC, measles is a highly infectious virus best known for its red skin rash, that routinely sickened thousands of children a year and killed hundreds, until childhood vaccinations made it a rarity in this country. But so far this year, the U.S. has counted 131 measles cases, the most in a decade, because most were unvaccinated. Some were infants too young for their first MMR shot, but nearly half involved children whose parents rejected vaccination, the CDC reported last month.’ Although there are still parents who are convinced the vaccine caused their child’s autism, they must look at the facts and specific, usually expensive, tests should be completed to either ease their minds or prove they were right.

Source: HealthDay News and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention)