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LONDON — The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research.

The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues were renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered.

A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.

The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.

Called 'an elaborate fraud'

Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy.

Deer's article was paid for by the Sunday Times of London and Britain's Channel 4 television network. It was published online Thursday in the medical journal, BMJ.

In an accompanying editorial, BMJ editor Fiona Godlee and colleagues called Wakefield's study "an elaborate fraud." They said Wakefield's work in other journals should be examined to see if it should be retracted.

Last May, Wakefield was stripped of his right to practice medicine in Britain. Many other published studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccination and autism.

But measles has surged since Wakefield's paper was published and there are sporadic outbreaks in Europe and the U.S. In 2008, measles was deemed endemic in England and Wales.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

COMMENTS

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PAGAN
08:02 Jan 06 2011

Dr Andrew Wakefield (research published, 1998) was later discredited by the General Medical Council (GMC) because his write-up of his research was flawed. He had ommitted certain data that didnt fit his theory, therefore his research was declared 100% invalid.



The media hype at the time of his research claim was so intense that later efforts by The Lancet and GMC to point out the flaws in Wakefield's research were futile and there is still a following who support his claims of the MMR vaacination being the trigger for autism in some children, when it has been widely agreed by the research community that the onset of autism merely co-incides with the age at which the MMR jab is given.

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PriestessOfNyx
20:57 Jan 06 2011

That's why I posted this, Pagan... I want everyone to see that this quack has been widely discredited so that maybe it will help them move past the whole MMR thing...



My son is autistic, but my girls are not... We knew there were developmental problems with my son way before he got the MMR shot... One of my daughters has had the MMR and is fully up to date on her shots and is perfectly fine... (The youngest just turned 2 and was sick, so we're having to wait until she's all better before getting her vaccinated)



There's something that alot of people fail to realize... There are a ton of non-vaccinated children that are Autistic... If vaccines are the cause then why are those non-vaccinated children Autistic... People never mention them because that would go against what they are saying, so they keep it quiet...



So all in all, this guy's a quack, and has caused alot of problems because of his discredited research...

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