§ Lord Clement-Jonesasked Her Majesty's Government:
In the light of the findings of the paper by Spitzer, Aitken et al in the Journal of Adverse Drug Reaction and Toxicology, 2001, 20(3), which found that there is a median delay between immunisation with measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and diagnosis of autism of 2.5 years, whether:
- (a) the trial of 200 children in Sheffield with a quadruple vaccine of MMR/chickenpox will include a follow-up for all 200 children for a minimum of three years each, as recommended by Spitzer, Aitken et al, rather than an extended follow-up of only acute immediate reactions;
- (b) any gradual degeneratiuon into autism, autistic spectrum disorder, or Aspergers Syndrome among the 200 children in this safety trial will be fully investigated before any wider safety trial in the United Kingdom is sanctioned; and
- (c) a similar safety trial will in any event be repeated with a much larger sample, again with a three-year follow-up of every single child, before there is any general introduction of a quadruple vaccine. [HL1616]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)No trials of MMR vaccine combined with chicken pox (varicella) vaccine are being conducted in Sheffield.
Although the paper by Spitzer, Aitken et al in the Journal of Adverse Drug Reactions and Toxicology reviews the cases of children whose parents are taking forward legal action against MMR manufacturers, it provides no scientific evidence to link MMR vaccine with autism. The paper reports the first symptoms of autism appeared on average over a year after the children had had MMR vaccine, strongly suggestive that MMR played no role. Spitzer, Aitken et al's findings are also counter to the paper by Dr Andrew Wakefield and colleagues published in the Lancet in 1998 which reported rapid onset of behaviourial symptoms, median 6.3 days, after MMR.
Other, more thorough, scientific studies which have looked at the link between MMR and autism have repeatedly found no link. A paper by Farrington et al published in Vaccine earlier this year examined whether autism might be a risk after MMR—as an acute event, or as a long-term delayed reaction. The authors concluded, "our results do not support the hypothesis that MMR or measles containing vaccines cause autism at any time after vaccination".