A new study that appears to provide the strongest evidence yet that no link exists between the MMR jab and increasing autism rates today sparked renewed debate over the vaccine.
The research, which examined 30,000 children, was conducted in the Japanese city of Yokohama. It showed that the number of children with autism continued to rise even when the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was replaced with single jabs.
Dr Hideo Honda, of the Yokohama Rehabilitation Centre, who led the investigation, told New Scientistmagazine: "The findings . . . are resoundingly negative."
The study is the first to examine autism rates after withdrawal of the MMR vaccine. Japan stopped using the jab in April 1993 following reports that the anti-mumps part of the vaccine was causing meningitis.
Fears about MMR surfaced in the UK in 1998 after Dr Andrew Wakefield, from the Royal Free Hospital in London, claimed that the vaccine might trigger autism.
His suggestion caused widespread panic among parents and led to MMR vaccination rates plummeting. A subsequent increase in measles outbreaks has been blamed directly on the MMR scare.
No epidemiological studies have revealed a link between the vaccine and autism.
