A Very Real Debate

Public health officials disagree. Agencies in the United States and Britain have been conducting research into the possible connection between vaccines and autism. In April 2000, the Institute of Medicine (IOM)--a private, non-profit research arm of the National Academy of Sciences--issued a report concluding that the MMR vaccine was in fact safe and effective and not correlated to autism.

In October 2001, the IOM released another report into the possible connection between autism and Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in some vaccines since the 1930's. Mercury is a known neurotoxin, but the compound had been proven safe in the small doses received via vaccine. But as more vaccines became routine, some wondered if too much mercury was accumulating in children's systems.

This boy might recover from measles but he still may suffer the consequences of its side effects

The IOM concluded that while they could not find a causal relationship between Thimerosal and autism, they could not rule one out, either. The IOM recommended that only Thimerosal-free vaccines be given to infants and children. However, the IOM also noted that vaccines containing the preservative should be administered rather than foregoing immunization where Thimerosal-free doses were not available. Infectious disease, the committee reasoned, poses a much greater risk than does autism.

"The committee recommended further work, and the National Institutes of Health has the initiative," says Dr. Marie McCormick, Chair of the Department of Maternal and Child Health at Harvard's School of Public Health in Boston and a member of the panel. "People are dealing with it responsibly, although there still are questions to be resolved."

Despite these unanswered questions, McCormick believes the science belies what some parents' eyes tell them.

"The timing association makes it seem causal," says McCormick "The second year of life is when children are vaccinated and also the time when autism becomes most obvious. But if you look at videos from even earlier, you can often see early signs of autism there."

Moreover, according to McCormick, new research on autism suggests there may be chemical abnormalities associated with autism that are present at birth. Detecting the disorder so early would resolve the question of whether vaccines can induce autism in otherwise perfectly healthy children once and for all. But the problem public health officials face today is how little is understood about autism.

That very murkiness could have a lot to do with the seeming increase in rates of autism. According to McCormick, the diagnostic guidelines for autism have changed four times in the last 30 years. The current guidelines include Aperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism that may have gone undiagnosed in the past. Additionally, increased awareness of autism likely led to more diagnoses. McCormick also sites changes in special education and institutionalization that may have had an impact on research into the disorder's prevalence.

"In short," concludes McCormick, "there is no good evidence [that rates of autism have increased] one way or the other."

- - - - - - - - - - - -
4 pages: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Photos: ADA