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Revision as of 09:26, 1 May 2005 by 217.44.173.234 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Dr. Andrew Wakefield (born 1957 in the United Kingdom) is a Canadian trained gastroenterologist, best known as the lead author of a controversial 1998 research study, published in the Lancet, which raised what its authors claimed was a possible association between MMR vaccination, bowel disease and autism .
Early career
After qualifying as a surgeon in 1981, Dr. Wakefield began his professional career in Canada specializing in bowel resection surgery. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985, and returned to the UK in the late 1980s.
In the UK, his career turned toward academic research, when he was appointed to a non-clinical research position at the Royal Free hospital medical school, part of the University of London. He published a number of studies which, he believed, suggested a link between measles virus and Crohn's disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This led him to criticise MMR, which contains live measles virus, on UK television in 1995 and 1996.
In 1995, while conducting research into Crohn’s, he was approached by Rosemary Kessick, the parent of an autistic child, who was seeking help with her son’s bowel problems . Kessick ran a group, Allergy Induced Autism , focused on the effects of diet of autistic children’s behavior.
In February 1998, a team of 13 doctors led by Wakefield released a study of Kessick's son and 11 other children, in an “early report”, published by the Lancet. The report was instantly controversial, leading to widespread publicity in the UK, and the convening of a special panel of the UK’s Medical Research Council the following month . Although the authors stressed that no causal connection was proven, the report described what its authors claimed was a possible new syndrome, involving a potential link between bowel disease, autism and measles-containing vaccines. The paper’s first “finding” was that parents of eight of the twelve children said that behavioral problems began within two weeks of vaccination with MMR. In their summary “interpretation” section of the paper, the authors said: “We identified associated gastrointestinal disease and developmental regression in a group of previously normal children, which was generally associated in time with possible environmental triggers.”
The MMR controversy
In February 1998, at a press conference and in a video news release issued by the hospital, Wakefield called for MMR to be “suspended”. He said: "If you give three viruses together, three live viruses, then you potentially increase the risk of an adverse event occurring, particularly when one of those viruses influences the immune system in the way that measles does." He suggested that parents should opt for single jabs against measles, mumps and rubella, separated by gaps of one year.
His warnings, and the media attention they received, led to a drop in the number of children receiving MMR, as had been predicted in a letter to the government by Wakefield's chief at the hospital .
The British government said that a return to single vaccines would lead to a fall in the overall level of protection against the three infectious diseases, placing children's health at risk. Shortly afterwards, single vaccines ceased to be available through the UK's National Health Service. Wakefield was later reported as arguing: "What precipitated this crisis was the removal of the single vaccine, the removal of choice, and that is what has caused the furor - because the doctors, the gurus, are treating the public as though they are some kind of moronic mass who cannot make an informed decision for themselves."
In December 2001, Wakefield resigned under pressure just a month after becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in recognition of his research publications. He was reported as saying: "I have been asked to go because my research results are unpopular." The medical school said that he had left “by mutual agreement”.
Aftermath
In February of 2004, controversy resurfaced when Wakefield was accused of a conflict of interest. The London Sunday Times published a story wherein Wakefield admitted that some of the 12 children in the Lancet study were part of a lawsuit against MMR manufacturers, and the Royal Free Hospital had received £55,000 from the UK's Legal Aid Board.. In October 2003, the board, renamed the Legal Services Commission, had cut off public funding for the litigation , causing some plaintiffs in the lawsuit to claim that the newspaper was supporting their opponents.
Twenty-four hours before the Sunday Times report, the Lancet responded to the investigation in a public statement, describing Wakefield’s work to be “fatally flawed” - an allegation he rejected . Ten of Wakefield's 12 co-authors of the Lancet paper published a "retraction of an interpretation", in which they stated: "We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between (the) vaccine and autism, as the data were insufficient. However the possibility of such a link was raised." .
In November 2004, the UK's Channel 4 Television broadcast a one-hour investigation by Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer, which alleged that before the Lancet paper was published, Wakefield had filed a patent application for a single measles vaccine, and that his laboratory had failed to find measles virus in the children. The UK's General Medical Council is investigating the allegations, which Wakefield denies.
Meanwhile, many parents with autistic children have come forward to tell of children who appeared to be developing normally until administration of MMR, but regressed soon after. Some also say that their autistic children suffer from digestive problems and food intolerances. Others have criticised Wakefield's theory for making them feel guilty for having had their child vaccinated. Wakefield's medical critics say that chance alone would explain a frequent temporal association between vaccination and the appearance of developmental disorders, since autism is commonly first revealed early in the second year of life, when MMR vaccination is routine.
The Institutes of Medicine (IOM) , along with the CDC, NIH, and FDA (and their British counterparts) deny that any link has been found between vaccines and autism. All epidemiological analyses have concluded that there is no evidence of any link between MMR and autism or bowel disease.
See also
External links
- About.com - 'Killing the Messenger: Dr. Andrew Wakefield Fired', Floyd Tilton (December 5, 2001)
- BrianDeer.com - 'Wakefield's reply to Lancet's retraction says legal contract was for viral study' (April 17, 2004)
- Brian Deer.com - 'the Lancet scandal: Following a Sunday Times investigation by Brian Deer, researchers at Britain's Royal Free hospital retracted claims that had caused a worldwide scare by linking the MMR vaccine with autism'
- Karger.com - 'Abnormal Measles-Mumps-Rubella Antibodies and CNS Autoimmunity in Children with Autism', Vijendra K. Singh, Sheren X. Lin, Elizabeth Newell, Courtney Nelson, Journal of Biomedical Science, Vol 9, No 4, 2002
- MelaniePhillips.com - 'The smearing of Andrew Wakefield', Melanie Phillips (February 23, 2004)
- Scripps Howard News Service - 'Anti-vaccine activists get jabbed', Michael Fumento (March 11 2004)
- Mercola.com - Response to NEJM Autism MMR Study, Dr. Andrew Wakefield
- MMRTheFacts.nhs.uk - 'MMR The Facts' (UK National Health Service)
- NCCN.net - 'MMR Vaccine' (Nevada County Community Network)
- ProLiberty.com - 'More studies link MMR vaccine to autism', The Idaho Observer
- Vaccine-Info.com - 'The Case Against MMR', Dr. Andrew Wakefield