UK Lancet retracts 1998 study linking MMR vaccine to Autism

FROM the Washington Post:

"A major British medical journal on Tuesday retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease.

The retraction by The Lancet comes a day after a competing medical journal, BMJ, issued an embargoed commentary calling for The Lancet to formally retract the study. The commentary was to have been published on Wednesday.

The BMJ commentary said once the study by British surgeon and medical researcher Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues appeared in 1998 in The Lancet, "the arguments were considered by many to be proven and the ghastly social drama of the demon vaccine took on a life of its own."

AND

"Ten of Wakefield's 13 co-authors renounced the study's conclusions several years ago and The Lancet has previously said it should never have published the research.

"We fully retract this paper from the published record," Lancet editors said in a statement Tuesday.

Last week, Britain's General Medical Council ruled that Wakefield had shown a "callous disregard" for the children used in his study and acted unethically. Wakefield and the two colleagues who have not renounced the study face being stripped of their right to practice medicine in Britain.

For the study, Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son's birthday party, paying them 5 pounds each ($8) for their contributions and later joking about the incident."
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One of my articles from July 2007

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Doctor facing misconduct: blood tests at a child's birthday party? Doctor behind study on autism and vaccines faces misconduct allegations

"But the study was soon discredited, and 10 of its 13 authors have since renounced its conclusions. The Lancet also said it should not have published the study, saying Wakefield's links to litigation against the manufacturers of the MMR vaccine were a "fatal conflict of interest."

"In addition to Wakefield, two other authors of the paper - John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch - are being investigated by the medical council."

"Wakefield stands accused of conducting operations on children - including colonoscopies and lumbar punctures - which were arguably unnecessary, of coordinating his research with lawyers for autism patients, and of taking blood from a group children at his son's birthday party - paying them 5 pounds each for their contributions and later joking about the incident."
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MMR Vaccine, Wakefield Hypothesis questioned

PDF, Journal,NatureMMR Vaccine and Autism-2002

Detection and sequencing of measles virus from peripheral mononuclear cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and autism 2000