The MMR vaccine has been linked to the autism for the last 10 years with many experts believing that the live virus found in it can cause inflammation in the intestines, resulting in toxins leaking into the bloodstream and damaging the developing brain.
However, the new findings contradict earlier research published by British researcher Andrew Wakefield in February 1998 issue of the Lancet journal of 12 children with autism and other behavioral problems that suggested the onset of their behavioral abnormalities was linked to receiving the MMR vaccine.
The new six-year study of children with bowel disease -- 25 with autism and 13 with normal development shows no link between getting the MMR vaccine and either autism or bowel disease.
Lead author W. Ian Lipkin, director of the center for infection and immunity at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said at a news conference that the current study focuses only on theories that the MMR vaccine causes autism.
The study does not address other vaccine-autism theories related to the fear that the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal might cause autism. The MMR vaccine does not contain thimerosal, WebMD reports.
Although the latest study to deny the link between autism and thimerosal does not seek to explain possible causes for the overall increase in diagnosed autism cases across the country, many doctors believe the increase is due simply to heightened awareness of the disorder and improved methods of diagnosing children with autistic behaviors.
The new study used better technology as compared to the previous ones and found slight traces of measles-vaccine virus in only two kids. One of these children had autism, the other did not. Only five of the 25 kids with autism got their MMR vaccine before getting bowel disease and autism, researchers added.
The new study comes as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington is in the midst of evaluating evidence on whether children's vaccines are implicated in causing autism. The research is published in the journal Public Library of Science One.
