MMR vaccine does not cause autism, confirms another study as researchers seek to quell anti-vaxx theories

Early trials on mice have shown that the flu virus can be re-engineered to kill prostate cancer cells (file photo) (Picture: Shutterstock / Billion Photos)

The MMR vaccination does not cause autism, a new medical study has confirmed.

Danish researchers followed 6,517 cases of autism among about 650,000 children on Denmark's population registry over ten years, finding no link between the illness and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.

Published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the research intends to quell fears about vaccines increasingly being shared on social media.

Lower uptake of vaccines is considered by the World Health Organization one of the top ten threats to world health.

Doubts grew about MMR in 1998 after gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield linked it to autism after noticing some cases of the disorder develop around the same time the shot is given, at 12 to 15 months.

Wakefield was struck off after the General Medical Council found he had acted "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in the course of his published research.

But a growing movement of influential anti-vaccine activists still claim MMR causes autism, developing alternative explanations for the findings of numerous studies that have not supported the theory.

A 2018 article in the BMJ stated that uptake of MMR in England fell for four years running as outbreaks of measles plagued parts of Europe.

“It has been said that we now live in a ‘fact-resistant’ world where data have limited persuasive value," said Saad Omer of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Inci Yildirim of Emory University’s School of Medicine, in the study's editorial.

However, the researchers addressed several arguments used by anti-vaccine activists that previous studies disproving a link are wrong.

They looked, for instance, at whether MMR caused autism specifically in children with increased risk factors such as having older parents - and still found no link.

"The study strongly supports that MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger autism in susceptible children, and is not associated with clustering of autism cases after vaccination," states a summary of the study.