Should the MMR vaccine be seperated???

Question

Should the 1 year old MMR be seperated? Do you think it has still a link to Autisim?? What are your views???

Answer 1

I have 2 Autistic children. Ten years ago when my eldest step son was diaganosed, yes we argued about the link of mercury content in the vaccines to Autism. We even went as far to telling the school system and drs that our religion was against immunizations and did not get my youngest step son vaccinated. To our surprise, 6 years ago our youngest son (who had never been vaccinated) was diagnosed with PDD (also on the Autism Spectrum) and ADD. Last night there was a report on ABC news about the genetic link to Autism. It was also announced last week that scientists from 19 different countries have been doing extensive research and found that in Autistic people there are many gene mutations. They have also just this month found that there is a link to a mutation in Chromosone 11. There has been no proof that the immunizations are linked to Autism and to be honest when terrorism hit the US and we had to face the fear of bio-terrorism we were the first ones in line to get our youngest vaccined. It is bad enough the poor thing has a PDD, let's not get Polio or something on top of that! Most children get the MMR vaccine by their 1st birthday. If you have a fear you can push it to after their 2nd or 3rd birthday- by that time a clinical diagnosis of Autism can be made. Do some research on how Autism runs in families and effects twins- that will most likely change your mind on the vaccine link (or non-link) to Autism.

Answer 2

Hi, good question.

I now work as a paediatrician but as a medical student I did research into the MMR vaccine.

Dr Andrew Wakefield created a media frenzy when he proposed possible links between the MMR vaccine and autism, and also to bowel disorders. However, the research he did and the conclusions he came to were highly flawed. It really was very poor science and the journal that published it - The Lancet - was heavily criticised for doing so.

There is no proven link between MMR and autism. However, we will always be unable to prove FOR DEFINITE that there is not. Case reports from some parents insist that there is, but there is no proof either way. This makes the decision to vaccinate very difficult.

The MMR vaccine is a victim of its own success. Measles can cause sub-sclerosing pan-encephalitis, a fatal and incurable brain disease. Mumps causes encephalitis and can make males sterile. Rubella causes severe abnormalities in unborn children if their mother becomes infected. Thanks to the success of the MMR vaccine, we have forgotten that these diseases can be serious. A 14 year old boy recently died of measles at Central Middlesex Hospital.

Regarding the single vaccines, there is no evidence that they are safer, in fact, there is far LESS evidence that they are safe. I believe the doctors that offer them are unethical as they target worried parents and make a great deal of money from doing so, without any evidence.

I would not hesitate to give my child the MMR vaccine.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

Why? There's no reason to separate this combination vaccine. There is no link to autism. All forms of autism are genetic.