Study rejects vaccine safety fears

MMR: New study claims fears surrouding the jab are unfounded

Finnish scientists have given the controversial triple vaccination jabs for children a clean bill of health.

Two months ago, British researchers suggested a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and an unusual syndrome of chronic bowel inflammation and autism.

Experts from the Royal Free Hospital in London advised alarmed parents to have their children given separate vaccinations until the risk was better understood.

But a new 14-year study, published in The Lancet - the same medical magazine as the original study - suggests that the fears surrounding the jab were unfounded.

Professor Heikki Peltola and colleagues from the Helsinki University Central Hospital in Finland based their findings on observations of a Finnish vaccination programme between 1982 and 1996.

Major study

Out of the three million children given the MMR jab, those who developed gastrointestinal side-effects lasting 24 hours or more were traced.

In all, 31 youngsters developed gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting within 15 days of the injection. But their symptoms generally lasted no more than a week.

In one case a baby boy suffered diarrhoea for six weeks but recovered and was healthy when checked six years later.

None of the 31 children developed any signs of autism or any similar syndrome.

The researchers concluded that after a decade's effort to detect all severe adverse effects associated with the MMR vaccine they could find "no data supporting the hypothesis that it would cause pervasive developmental disorder or inflammatory bowel disease."

Earlier fears

In February, fears of a link between the MMR vaccine and bowel conditions and autism prompted a surge in demand for the individual vaccines.

It resulted in supplies of the jabs drying up.

However, a high-powered group of 37 experts said there was no evidence that children were at risk and recommended that Britain's immunisation programme should not be changed.

The government also appealed to parents not to abandon the MMR vaccine.