In this case study I will discuss the cases for and against the statement: The MMR vaccine could be linked to autism.

• A fever

• Coughing

• Loss of appetite

• Conjunctivitis (red, painful eyes)

 Children usually have to spend a week in bed but are unable to attend school for several days after the rash has gone to make sure they recover properly. Adults can also be affected by the measles but it is more severe in adults than in children. 

Mumps

The mumps virus causes swelling of the parotid glands which are just in front of the ears. There are lots of complications of this infection such as:

• Meningitis

• Encephalitis (brain swelling)

• Hearing loss.

Rubella  

 Rubella usually causes a mild infection in children. Here are some symptoms:

• A short lived rash

• A fever

• A cough

• A sore throat

• Swollen glands

• Malaise

There are some complications like joint pains (arthralgia), arthritis, encephalitis (brain swelling) and ITP (immune thrombocytopenic purpura - bleeding disorder).

There is a lot of damage it can do to unborn children if the mother is infected. Congenital rubella syndrome occurs in 90% of mothers who are infected during their pregnancy. The syndrome leads to:

• Deafness

• Blindness

• Growth retardation

• Heart defects

• Brain damage  

The Vaccination for theses diseases can protect from all three which is better than getting the diseases.

(2)

This graph shows that in America before the vaccine was introduced the number of cases of measles increased as time went by. When the vaccine was licensed the number immediately dropped by a significant amount. Since then the cases had dropped to less than 100,000 and it has mad ea big difference. There are some times e.g. in the 1970s that there was a bit more but that may be because some may not have chosen to vaccinate their child/children. Just before the 1980s the cases dropped to almost 0 and continued to stay like that until a few cases in the 1990s. After that it has stayed 0.

How do vaccinations work?

                                                                    If you meet the real 

                                                                    disease the antibodies

                                                                     are made very quickly.    

Small amount of the                

weakened virus is put into

Your body through an injection.

                                                                     

                                                             The antibodies make the cells

                                                                      clump together, the white

                                                                     white blood cells engulf the

                                                                     foreign cells.

White blood cells recognise                    

 foreign cells and they make

the right antibodies to stick to

the foreign cells.                    

                                                                          The cells are destroyed before

.                                                                         They can make you ill.

                                                                                                   

(3)

What is Autism?

Autism is a severe developmental disorder that begins at birth or within the first two-and-a-half years of life. Most autistic children are perfectly normal in appearance, but spend their time engaged in puzzling and disturbing behaviours which are markedly different from those of typical children. For many years autism was rare - occurring in just five children per 10,000 live births. However, since the early 1990's, the rate of autism has increased exponentially around the world with figures as high as 60 per 10,000. Boys outnumber girls four to one. In 2007, the Centres for Disease Control reported that 1 in 150 children is diagnosed with autism. (4)

Case for the link between the vaccine and Autism.  

There are cases where a child has died. Carol Buxton is one mother who had one misfortune of seeing her daughter dead in her cot. Her daughter had been given the triple vaccine and at first Carol thought it would be a good idea to get it over and done with but after a week of having the vaccine her daughter suffered from high temperatures and later suffered from fits. Her daughter had then been diagnosed of having autism. She died as a result of a fit in her sleep. This is not the only case. There have also been a few others. This cannot be ignored if people have died from it.  This is where more research needs to be done in order to make sure that this doesn’t happen to more children. When Dr Wakefield had tested his theory and speculation he said there were more than several cases of healthy children that had developed these conditions after being given the vaccine.  

Paul Shattock, of the Autism Research Unit in Sheffield, who is carrying out a large- scale study of 5,000 autistic children in Britain, supports Dr Wake-field's findings. There is growing interest in his work in Canada and the U.S. where similar concerns about MMR have been raised. Statistics on autism seem to back up the suspicions of those opposed to the MMR vaccine. Some research suggests a ten-fold rise in cases in the past ten years. This information is reliable because there is an account or some thing that have been said that a person with first hand experience has said. (6+8)

Against the link between the vaccine and autism(7)

There is no evidence for a link between the MMR jab and autism, say The Guardian and other news sources. The reports are based on a study that is the “biggest review conducted to date”, analyzing “the blood from 250 children and concluded that the vaccine could not be responsible”.

The jab has been linked to autism since 1998, when a study of 12 children published in The Lancet linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab to the development of autism. That research has since been discredited and two major studies have been published subsequently which also failed to show any link. Wakefield first suggested his ideas with two other scientists. This was then assessed by many other scientists then published in the Lancet. I think that this is a reliable source because the studies were assessed by scientists and I don’t think that so many scientists could be wrong.(5)

Two doses of the MMR vaccine gives 99% protection for the measles – the most serious of the three diseases. The Government-commissioned study (published in the Lancet in 1999) investigated claims that MMR was linked to autism and bowel disease. It concluded there was no link. Another study commissioned by the Department of Health and published in January this year also gave MMR the all-clear. This is also a reliable source as it is from a newspaper the Daily Mail. (6)

The MMR vaccine is given to children in the UK when they are aged between 1 and 2 years, because of this, some parents will see signs of autism in the weeks and months before MMR is given, and others will notice them in the weeks and months after MMR is given. Parents who see changes in their child will often link the change to a specific event.  Those parents whose children show signs of autism after MMR understandably often link the two events, but there is no evidence to show that there is cause and effect between MMR and autism. (7)

References:

(1)  and textbook.

Picsearch images -   rubella image

(2)  

 

 (3) Image from picsearch –   - info from textbook

(4)  

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

(8)