Doctor in gun on autism link

By MARTIN JOHNSTON AND THE INDEPENDENT

The doctor who linked a common vaccination to autism will be investigated for alleged professional misconduct.

Dr Andrew Wakefield's research linked the disease to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, prompting one of Britain's biggest health scares and a drop in the injection's use throughout the Western world.

He will be interviewed this week by Britain's General Medical Council.

The Secretary of State for Health, Dr John Reid, called for the investigation as a "matter of urgency" after it emerged that the doctor had failed to declare a financial interest when he submitted his research for publication.

But the Government remains under growing pressure to order a full, independent inquiry into how the research was carried out, paid for and published.

The director of the Auckland University-based Immunisation Advisory Centre, Dr Nikki Turner, said last night: "It's a sad lesson that a hypothesis has created a drop-off in vaccination rates all around the Western world."

She suspected this had happened in New Zealand too, but no statistics were held on vaccination coverage.

An estimated 70-80 per cent of New Zealand children received the first, 15-month dose of MMR vaccine, Dr Turner said, but far fewer were given the second, at 4 years.

The many phone calls to the centre from health workers and worried parents wanting to know about MMR and autism had started to decline only in the past six months.

"We've got overwhelming literature showing no link, but that hasn't rapidly come through to reassure parents. How do you undo a myth; that's the problem."

Research published in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal shows that 21 per cent of doctors and 41 per cent of nurses are unsure whether the MMR vaccine is associated with autism or Crohn's disease.

Eleven per cent of the 188 health workers who took part thought that immunisations posed "unacceptable dangers", although 72 per cent thought that they did not, and 17 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed.

Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal, admitted at the weekend that the research would never have been published had it been known that Dr Wakefield had also been working for lawyers preparing legal action by parents who believed that the jab had caused their children's autism.

He said that the disclosure, admitted by Dr Wakefield, amounted to a "fatal conflict of interest" and that his key finding was "entirely flawed".

The author's research fund received £55,000 ($145,738) from the Legal Aid Board for studies on 10 children suspected of having been damaged by vaccines. Four of the children were also used in the highly controversial study that linked the MMR vaccination to autism, it was admitted.

Other allegations, that the research was biased and lacked proper ethical approval, have been rejected by the journal and the Royal Free Hospital in London, where the research was done.

A hospital statement said Dr Wakefield, who left his post two years ago, should have declared the interest, but defended the other researchers involved.


Jackie Fletcher, of the British campaign group Jabs, said that Dr Wakefield might have been the target of a smear campaign.