MMR vaccine does not increase a child’s likelihood of becoming autistic, major study affirms
28.03.2019A major study conducted in Denmark has affirmed that the MMR vaccine does not increase a child’s likelihood of becoming autistic. The study monitored more than 650,000 children born in Denmark in 1999-2010 over a period of more than 10 years.
The researchers compared the numbers of vaccinated and non-vaccinated children who were diagnosed with autism. The researchers did not find any differences in these numbers and hence no support for the claim that the MMR vaccine increases the risk of autism.
Earlier studies agree
The link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been studied before. A study carried out in 2002 included 537,000 Danish children and did not find a link between autism and the MMR vaccine. In addition to the Danish studies, six other studies have come to the same conclusion.
The MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps and rubella. In Europe, there were more cases of measles in 2018 than in any other year of this decade. According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization WHO, the number of measles cases around the world increased by 48.4% between 2017 and 2018.
According to the WHO, the increase in cases of measles is partly the result of the increase in vaccine hesitancy. The WHO considers vaccine hesitancy to be one of the major threats to global health in 2019.