04:00 PM EST on Monday, January 24, 2005

It’s been a recurring concern among parents: do vaccinations put children at risk for autism?

A new study done at the Mayo Clinic looked at whether the increase in autism rates is due to shots.

Recently, there have been several studies to show that the mmr, or measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, is not a cause of autism.

“With my son Jack, I didn’t have the MMR until he was 2. I waited just because there was so much controversy. I figured I would wait and see and if, um, there was a chance that there could be a relationship to the autism.”

Megan was like many moms, worried about the risk that vaccines might trigger autism.

Studies from the 1980s and early 1990s reported that between 4 and 10 per 10,000 children were diagnosed with autism; however those numbers skyrocketed in the past decade, to 30 to 50 per 10,000 children.

Are immunizations the cause?

The study, in the archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, shows the increase in autism rates are due, in large part, to the way autism is diagnosed. In one county in Minnesota, the rise in autism rates coincided with a broader criteria for autism, so that children, who previously may have been diagnosed with mental retardation or developmental delay, are now given the diagnosis of autism.

Also, as soon as federal laws were enacted in 1991 requiring an availability of services for children with autism, the number of diagnosed children increased.

The research also suggests the increase may be due to greater awareness. Dr. Steven Wolf, Medical Director of Pediatric Epilepsy at Beth Israel Medical Center, says, “I think what’s happened is we’ve gotten smarter and we have become more aware as parents and we’ve become more better advocates.”

The bottom line, there’s no evidence autism is due to vaccinations, this study concludes. “Every child does get immunizations, but clearly every child does not develop autism or speech and language problem. We invented immunization to help prevent infection, prevent illness, prevent serve meningitis, and whooping cough and such which can so severely damage the child or even kill the child,” says Dr. Wolf.

Many experts believe that autism is not caused by one particular thing, but rather is a constellation of causes and possibly genetics.