Retracted autism study fraudulent

A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday. As reported in by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.

Le Bonheur Children's Hospital Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Dr. Keith English weighs in on the recent exposure of this fraudulent claim.

"My colleagues and I agree with the American Academy of Pediatrics that vaccines are "one of the most successful medical advances of all time." Childhood vaccines have prevented millions of infections and saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States alone. T hey remain the greatest triumph of modern medicine and are the single most important way to protect our children from dangerous infectious diseases today.

A report published in the journal Lancet in 1998, authored by Andrew Wakefield, claimed to find a link between the childhood vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR vaccine) and autism. It was quickly recognized that the conclusions of the study were wrong (that is, they were not supported by the data presented in the article) and that the study should never have been published. Many of the co-authors later had their names removed from the paper, and, finally, last year, Lancet formally retracted the paper. During the past 12 years, dozens of studies have been performed and have failed to confirm any such link. Wakefield was wrong.

Now it turns out that more than bad science was involved. An investigation by the London Times and the British Medical Journal has concluded that the data included in the paper were fraudulent -- that Dr. Wakefield lied about the data in order to try to implicate the MMR vaccine in the pathogenesis of autism (while he was being paid by a lawyer who planned to sue vaccine manufacturers based on the bogus conclusions of Dr. Wakefield's fraudulent "study").

There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism - period. Thousands of children have suffered and died from vaccine preventable infectious diseases over the past twelve years because of the public concerns raised by this unethical and fraudulent publication.

My colleagues and I here at Le Bonheur all recommend that parents make sure their children are fully immunized, according to the vaccine schedule published each year by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

For reliable information about childhood vaccines, talk to your pediatrician or consult reputable websites such as the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Our readers can learn more about the charges against this study by following the link at http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html.