Autism has increased extremely much in the last 20 years. This is a disability that affects the brain, and it makes it more difficult to communicate and interacting with others. There has been people questioning if vaccines and autism could have connection, and if this could be the reason for the increase.
This assumption all started in the late 1900s. A study by a group of British researches were published, showing that some individuals that had been vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) were higher likely to get Autism. The gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield was one of the researchers who believed the vaccine disturbed the intestinal tissue and would then lead to bowel disease and neuropsychiatric disease. And he was especially referring to Autism. They didn’t really have any evidence until 1998 were Wakefield and 12 other authors, published a study in the medical journal the Lancet. In this paper they claimed they had found evidence that in 12 different cases, there had been children exhibited autism symptoms after MMR vaccine. But they also wrote that they couldn’t demonstrate a fully connection between MMR and autism.
There was a huge reaction to this publication. It was covered all over the news and parents wanted to delay or refuse the MMR vaccine for their children. After all of this, the possible link between MMR and autism was being studied intensely. But no faithful study has confirmed Wakefield’s findings. What they found out was that many well- designed studies have found no possible relationship between MMR and bowel disease or MMR and autism.
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