Monday, May 19, 2014

University of Sydney study: no link between vaccination and autism

This.

The idea that vaccines were linked to autism took hold in 1998 when British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a paper that hypothesised that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could lead to the condition.
The paper has since been discredited and his research was found to be fraudulent.
In 2011, pharmaceutical scientist Dr Dennis Flaherty called Wakefield’s findings “the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years”.
And now, this article reports on settling that annoying, very damaging argument to rest. It starts:
Many parents feel immunisation is unnatural and there are prevalent fears about a link between vaccination and autism.
A new report led by the University of Sydney appears to have settled the argument.
A review of available data from around the world has found that there is no link between vaccination and the development of autism or autism spectrum disorders.
The study examined seven sets of data involving more than 1.25 million children and concluded that there was no evidence to support a relationship between common vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and the development of autism.
The paper’s senior author, Associate Professor Guy Eslick from the Sydney Medical School, said he was inspired to look into the issue after watching some documentaries on the medical debate.
“I thought, surely someone has put this data together. I searched; there was nothing,” Prof Eslick said.
To read more, click here.


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