New Research Supports Concern Over MMR Jab.

The news that a study of 22 children has replicated the findings of earlier research linking the MMR vaccine to autism and bowel disease was reported by the Daily Mail on 16 December 2003. This study does not appear to have been published and therefore neither the quality of the research evidence nor the accuracy of the report can be assessed.

The Daily Mail reported that the safety of the MMR vaccine was called into question, as a study appeared to back the British doctor who first linked it to autism and bowel disease.
The newspaper reported that Dr Arthur Krigsman at New York University School of Medicine had 'seen the same pattern of illness and discovered similar abnormalities in the youngsters' bowels' as found in earlier research presented by Dr Andrew Wakefield at London's Royal Free Hospital.
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The study cited does not appear to have been published and so a full evaluation of the evidence cannot be carried out. However, the report in the Daily Mail suggests that the evidence comes from a case series of 22 children 'whose parents had said they had been made ill by MMR'. When the findings of this study are available, they will need to be interpreted and understood in the context of the substantial body of evidence that already exists regarding the safety of MMR.