Why there is no link between measles virus and autism

A report published in the Lancet in 1998 described the case histories of 12 previously normal children who developed symptoms of autism or inflammatory bowel disease after having received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This paper formed the basis for Andrew Wakefield’s subsequent claim to have identified a new type of gastrointestinal disease, termed autistic enterocolitis. Despite never explicitly asserting a link between the MMR vaccine and this supposedly new, regressive form of autism, the paper sparked a major health scare in the United Kingdom. Conclusion: An exhaustive analysis of the experimental RT-qPCR data generated by the O’Leary laboratory demonstrates: • Lack of transparency and completeness of reporting; • Persistent and widespread contamination; • The contamination is caused by DNA; • Inept data analysis. As a result, the conclusions put forward by this paper are entirely incorrect and there is no evidence whatever for the presence either of MeV genomic RNA or mRNA in the GI tracts of any of the patients investigated during the course of the studies reported by O’Leary et al. Instead, it is clear that the data support the opposite conclusion: there is no evidence for any MeV being present in the majority of patients’ analysed. Unfortunately, the authors do not report whether any the patients had received the MMR vaccination. However, assuming that a significant proportion had done so, it is also clear that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and the presence of MeV in the intestine of autistic children.