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18954 tn?1314298117

Daughter doesn't believe in vaccinations!

Pam
Hi

My daughter does not believe in vaccinating my grandchildren because she is convinced that vaccinations cause autism.  Is there any definitive data that proves this is not true?  I'm so worried that my grandchildren are not protected from horrible illnesses that could threaten their lives.

Thank you for any help or suggestions you may have.

Worried Granny!
2 Responses
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18954 tn?1314298117
Pam
Thank you so much for such a wonderful answer!  I sent this on to my daughter and she I'm very happy to report that she has an appointment with my grandchildren's Pediatrician to get them VACCINATED!

There is a lot of garbage on the Internet and everyone seems to have an opinion, but the answer you gave me was amazing!  I just wanted you to know that you did a great thing for a VERY GRATEFUL grandmother!


Pam
Helpful - 0
5614495 tn?1371829204
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
This is a really important question and I am more than happy to review some of the evidence for you. Though we do not know why the rate of autism has increased over recent years, we can confidently say that the culprit is NOT vaccines.

The myth about vaccines causing autism began in 1998 when The Lancet published a report on 8 children who received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and then developed autistic symptoms within a month. We now know that was a severely flawed study and it has since been retracted. Unfortunately, that publication led to the perpetuation of this fear, and as a result some parents are still choosing not to give their children life-saving vaccinations.

There have been many large studies showing no connection between vaccines and autism and I will highlight a few key ones below (links and citations also included):

A large study published in The New England Journal of Medicine looked at 440,655 children born between 1991 and 1998, and showed NO difference in autism rates between children vaccinated with the MMR vaccine and those not vaccinated: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa021134.

Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, et al. A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(19):1477–1482.

Another very large study published in the The Lancet followed 1.8 million children for 14 years after receiving the MMR vaccine, and found NO cases of vaccine-induced autism: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(98)24018-9/fulltext.

Peltola H, Patja A, Leinikki P, Valle M, Davidkin I, Paunio M. No evidence for measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine–associated inflammatory bowel disease or autism in a 14-year prospective study.Lancet. 1998;351(9112):1327–1328.

Here is a great review article summarizing the evidence that you and your daughter may want to read: http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/48/4/456.full.

Gerber JS, Offit PA. Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses. Clin Infect Dis. 2009;48(4):456–461.

As the rates of MMR vaccination have dropped as a result of this ungrounded fear, infection rates of measles and mumps have increased, leading to serious illness and death in children. I urge your daughter to take a look at all the evidence and feel confident in the decision to have her children vaccinated.
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