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Lancet Retracts Study Tying Vaccine to Autism

By SHIRLEY S. WANG

The study that first suggested a link between vaccines and autism and spurred a long-running, acrimonious debate over the safety of vaccines has been retracted by the British medical journal that published it. The withdrawal supports the scientific evidence that vaccinations don’t cause autism, but isn’t likely to persuade advocacy groups that believe in a link.

The 1998 study of 12 children triggered worry among British parents that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine caused autism, and many decided not to immunize their children against measles, according to Richard Horton, editor in chief of the Lancet, which issued the retraction Tuesday. He called the study the “starting pistol,” though not the only cause, of the controversy.

Concern about the safety of vaccines, particularly regarding the preservative often used, thimerosal, which contains mercury, spread to the U.S. as well. Research has shown that as many as 2.1% of U.S. children weren’t immunized with the MMR vaccine in 2000, up from 0.77% of children in 1995, according to a 2008 study published in Pediatrics.

“This retraction by the Lancet came far too late,” said Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a coinventor of a vaccination for babies against a gastrointestinal virus, Rotateq, that is marketed by Merck & Co. “It’s very easy to scare people; it’s very hard to unscare them.”

A widely cited 2004 statistical review of existing studies by nonprofit health-information provider the Institute of Medicine, which traced the vaccine theory back to the Lancet study, concluded there was no causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Some autism activist groups, however, continue to advocate against vaccinations for children, despite the lack of scientific evidence for such a link.

“Certainly the retraction of this paper doesn’t mean that MMR doesn’t cause autism and it’s all a farce,” said Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association. It is “possible” that the MMR vaccine causes autism, she said, but “the science is not there in terms of the mechanism.” The concern is that measles virus has been found in children’s intestines after vaccination, said Ms. Fournier.

“No one is anti-vaccine,” she said. “It’s a matter of having vaccines be as safe as they can.”

A study published in 2008 by researchers from several universities and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined children with gastrointestinal problems who had autism compared with those who didn’t have autism. They concluded there wasn’t any evidence that the vaccine was responsible for autism.

Associated Press

Ten of the 13 authors of the original paper, all of whom were researchers at the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine in London, partially retracted the paper in 2004. However, the first author, Andrew Wakefield, didn’t. Dr. Wakefield, who is now at the Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin, Texas, didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

“Many consumer groups have spent 10 years waging a campaign against vaccines even in the face of scientific evidence,” said Dr. Horton of the Lancet. “We didn’t have the evidence back in 2004 to fully retract the paper but we did have enough concern to persuade the authors to partly retract the paper.”

The Lancet decided to issue a complete retraction after an independent regulator for doctors in the U.K. concluded last week that the study was flawed. The General Medical Council’s report on three of the researchers, including Dr. Wakefield, found evidence that some of their actions were conducted for experimental purposes, not clinical care, and without ethics approval. The report also found that Dr. Wakefield drew blood for research purposes from children at his son’s birthday party, paying each child £5 (about $8).

The Lancet’s Dr. Horton said the journal was particularly concerned about the ethical treatment of the children in the study, and that the children had been “cherry-picked” by the study’s authors rather than just showing up in the hospital, as described in the paper.

The authors “did suggest these children arrived one after another and this syndrome was apparent, which does lead you to think this is something serious,” said Dr. Horton.

“I hope this brings closure to this controversy,” said Fred Volkmar, an autism researcher and professor of psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center who wasn’t involved in the Lancet study. “My fear, unfortunately, is that this won’t totally allay the fear of all parents.”

In the 1998 paper, Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues described 12 children with gastrointestinal problems. Eight experienced symptoms that were thought to be related to the MMR vaccine, according to their parents or a doctor, and nine of the 12 children exhibited autistic behaviors.

Dr. Wakefield has been outspoken about his concern about the measles vaccine. He has continually pushed the view that the vaccine caused autism, said Greg Poland, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic and director of the vaccine research group in Rochester, Minn.

“With the retraction, the hypothesis that he put forward has been debunked,” said Dr. Poland.

—Peter Loftus contributed to this article.

Write to Shirley S. Wang at shirley.wang@wsj.com

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This is from the British government and it’s equivalent to the American Academy of Pediatrics. They, too, in addition to the AAP, the World Health Organization and the American Committee on Immunization Practices have concluded that vaccines are not only safe but that they CATEGORICALLY DO NOT cause or contribute to autism, which is KNOWN to have genetic causes.

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Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Broke Research Rules, U.K. Regulators Say

Nicky Broyd

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In what is rapidly becoming a true non-issue, at least among the people that study this for a living, the British journal Lancet has retracted the findings of the ORIGINAL study that they themselves published over 10 years ago that seemed to link autism with vaccines. They now state unequivocally that this study was flawed by the intentional use of falsified numbers and have withdrawn their support for both the study itself and the now disgraced principal author, Dr Andrew Wakefield. Read on.
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From WebMD Health News

Study Linking Autism to Vaccine Retracted

Daniel J. DeNoon

Most parents wonder from time to time if their child is developing “normally”. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other national groups have well established guidelines for development, but keep in mind they are just that—guidelines. There can be a wide range of normalcy around these milestones, particularly when you take into consideration prematurity and illness states.
As your healthcare providers, it is important for us to regularly assess your young child for age appropriate skills and behaviors. As long as she/he is continuing to learn and do new things, all should be well!
Listed below are some possible red flags for delayed development. It is important to recognize these possible signs in a timely manner and have the child evaluated by a developmental specialist or early intervention agency. Locally, Early Steps or Face-Autism, Inc. provides free screening for children less than 3 years of age. Children over 3 years can be seen through the school system or privately by Neurology or Psychiatric Services.

Possible Red Flags

The child:
> Does not respond to name by12 months of age or to parent’s smile or other facial expressions
> Doesn’t snuggle when picked up, but arches the back instead
> Does not point to objects to show interest (like the fire truck going by) by 14 months
> Doesn’t play pretend (“feeding dolly” or “driving” the car) by 18 months of age
> Doesn’t bring objects to “show” to parents
> Avoids eye contact and would rather play alone
> Doesn’t say single words by 15 months or 2-word phrases by 24 months
> Repeats exactly what others say without understanding its meaning (parroting or echolalia)
> Doesn’t start or can’t continue a conversation
> Seems to be unaware when others are talking to them but responds to other sounds like a car horn
> Does repetitive behaviors like rocking, spinning, swaying, twirling of fingers or flapping hands (esp. when excited or upset)
> Likes routines, order and rituals
> Doesn’t show concern or empathy for others

If you have any concerns about your child or grandchild, please bring it to our attention so we can assess and make appropriate referrals.

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With holiday and winter ski trips upon us, this common childhood aliment is likely to arise. When many kids have dry skin, they often also get red irritated skin around their mouths. As the skin gets irritated, many children will begin to lick the area to keep it wet. Unfortunately, the chronic licking establishes a pattern of accelerated evaporation and destruction of the epidermal barrier leading to the classic lip licker’s dermatitis. Out of desperation, parents try topical steroid creams and antifungal products with little improvement. Fortunately, this type of rash usually responds well to water barrier moisturizers such as Vaseline, Aquaphor Healing Ointment, and Eucerin Original Moisturizing Cream, etc. The trick is that you have to put moisturizers around your child’s lips several times an hour, to help break the cycle of irritation and lip licking.

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This has little or nothing to do with pediatrics and/or children’s health. I just thought it is interesting, and you may, too.

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Mining salt in Bavaria
By Morgen Jahnke

Nowadays, we take salt for granted. Sold for a pittance, the most common of spices, we think of it as an everyday thing, when we think of it at all. It wasn’t always so. In fact, great empires and fortunes rose and fell according to its supply. It is hard to imagine a modern war being fought over salt. But consider these historical events, as recounted in Margaret Visser’s Much Depends on Dinner:
Morocco fought Mali in the sixteenth century for the mines of Taoudeni; the Venetians, whose salt interests are an historical study in themselves, destroyed Comacchio in the tenth century and the salt gardens of Cervia in the fourteenth; pirates throughout the centuries ambushed and raided the slow heavy convoys of salt ships.
There are plenty of other examples—all of which seem outlandish to us today, considering that the biggest battles fought over salt have to do with whether it should be spread over icy roads in winter. Salt has lost its nobility, its historical power—but from the salt-starved Vikings to the salt-greedy Romans, salt has played an important role in human history.

The Saltman Cometh

Nowhere does this seem more obvious than in the salt-rich environs of eastern Bavaria and western Austria. The de facto capital of the region, Salzburg (or “salt town”) was built by its first archbishop in the eighth century with profits from salt mining, but the practice of salt mining goes back even further, to the civilization of the early Celts. In his book Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky describes the discovery by local salt miners in the 1600s of a “perfectly preserved body, dried and salted ‘like codfish,’” believed now to date to 400 B.C. Dressed in colorful fabrics, this “saltman” and two others like him were found with the tools of their trade near them, proof of an ancient salt mining culture.

Salt of the Earth

This salt mining tradition continues in the modern salt works along the German/Austrian border, and it’s possible to experience some of what those ancient miners might have felt, deep in the mountains of salt. Founded in 1517, the Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden (“Berchtesgaden salt mine”)—located near Salzburg but on the German side of the border—once entertained only aristocratic visitors, but now welcomes the public to its underground facilities and caves. Berchtesgaden, erroneously linked in the public imagination with Hitler’s southern headquarters (they were actually located at Obersalzberg, a small settlement further up in the mountains) is a town that developed in proximity to the Augustinian monastery that owned the Salzbergwerk. In the early 1800s the monastery was converted into a palace for the Wittelsbachs, rulers of Bavaria at the time, and the entire area became associated with this colorful family.

Mine Games

Still operational, the Salzbergwerk is a joy to visit. Donning the traditional leather vests and helmets of the miners, you start to feel as if you are a miner yourself. This sensation is heightened when, after a short train ride, you are asked to slide down a wooden chute into the mine itself. After overcoming my apprehension, I slid into the dark, feeling even more like a miner heading to work. Our guide, a local man, explained the workings of the mine to us—or so I gathered, since I couldn’t understand his thick “Bayrisch” accent. This only added to the feeling of being in a different world, a world where life goes on underground.
The most striking element of this topsy-turviness was the presence of a large underground lake in the mine. Gliding silently across its depths on a wooden platform boat, it was eerie to see the lights at its edges through the darkness, and to feel the oppressive nearness of the stone “ceiling.” I imagined myself gliding across the river Styx, and shivered in the damp air.

Worth Its Salt

Returning from the depths of the mine, it was hard to think of salt the same way again. It is, after all, the only rock that we eat, and with thousands of tons of it looming above your head, you don’t immediately think, “pass the salt.” Vital to the functioning of our vital organs, we would die without salt, yet we live in a salt-glutted world, so much so that we are told to reduce our intake, for the sake of our health.
In their song “NaCl (Sodium Chloride),” folk singers Kate and Anna McGarrigle make a case for the worthiness of salt. Describing the meeting, mating and melding of a sodium atom and a chlorine atom in the primordial sea, they ask us to “Think of the love that you eat, when you salt your meat.” Silly, meant to be taken with a “grain of salt,” yet it expresses the mystery of salt, the serendipitous compound that protects our cells, and fills the ocean. —Morgen Jahnke