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News
MMR
Vaccine & Autism:
An Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report
(Measles,
Mumps, and Rubella)
Archived materials (April
2001)
Reason
report was done
Public
confidence in our immunization programs is essential
to the nation’s public health.
Issues
involving the safety of vaccines, particularly childhood vaccines,
continue to concern some members of the public, health care professionals,
the public health community, the media, Congress, vaccine manufacturers, and
federal agencies.
In response to these concerns, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and the
National Institutes of Health have asked the
National Academy of Sciences
- Institute of Medicine (IOM) to establish
an independent expert committee to review hypotheses
about existing and emerging immunization safety
concerns. The first of these reviews (2001)
was an examination of the possible link between
the use of the Measles,
Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine and
autism.
The Immunization Safety Review
Committee is composed of 15
expert members from pediatrics, neurology, immunology, internal medicine,
infectious diseases, genetics, epidemiology, biostatistics, risk perception
and communication, decision analysis, public health, nursing, and ethics.
To eliminate any real or perceived notion the committee members were
selected on the basis of a strict criteria to eliminate any potential or
perceived conflict of interest.
The committee used both private and public
meetings to review the current understanding of the etiology and
epidemiology of autism and investigate the MMR vaccine and autism
hypothesis.
The
report
of this committee was issued by the Institute of Medicine on Monday, April
23, 2001.
 Top
Conclusions
of 2001 IOM report
The Committee concluded that the vast majority of cases of
autism cannot be caused by MMR vaccine. The Committee’s conclusion means
that MMR cannot explain the recent increasing
trends in autism diagnoses.
While the available information does not implicate MMR as a cause of
individual cases of autism, the information is insufficient to totally
exclude MMR as a cause of autism in rare instances. No epidemiologic study
or clinical trial can ever establish that a vaccine is absolutely safe or
that a particular vaccine reaction never occurs.
The Committee concluded that there was no need to review the existing
recommendations for universal use of MMR at 12-15 months of age and 4-6
years of age. The Committee’s conclusion upholds the current policy of
giving the MMR vaccine as one instead
of three separate injections.
The Public Health Service agencies consider this report prepared by a carefully selected, independent panel of
scientists convened by the Institute of Medicine to be a major step forward
in addressing concerns about the safety of MMR vaccine. Open meetings were
held in March, 2001 to review the current understanding of the etiology and
epidemiology of autism and investigate
the MMR vaccine and autism hypothesis.
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Recommendations
of the 2001 IOM report
The
IOM report made a number of other important
recommendations regarding research and communications.
The research recommendations included the following: use accepted case
definitions and protocols to enhance the comparability of results from
studies; explore whether exposure to MMR vaccine is a risk factor for a
small number of children; develop targeted investigations for the measles
vaccine-strain is present in the children with autism; encourage more
detailed Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports; study the
possible effects of different immunization exposures; and conduct further
clinical and epidemiological studies of sufficient rigor to identify risk
factors and biological markers.
The Committee also recommended that the public health service agencies
including the CDC and FDA review some of their most prominent forms of
communication including the ease at which information can be accessed on the
Internet.
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Next
steps
related to the 2001 IOM report
The
Public Health Service agencies believe that review of these concerns
by such an independent expert panel will contribute to maintaining
public confidence in our national immunization program and assuring
the continued protection of US children against vaccine-preventable
diseases in an effective and safe manner. The recommendations made
by this expert panel are under review by CDC and the other agencies.
2001
IOM report
You can obtain
the full report titled Immunization
Safety Review: Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine
and Autism.
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