NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) – There is no link between
receiving a number of vaccines early in life and autism,
researchers said on Friday.
In a study slated to appear in The Journal of Pediatrics,
researchers said there is no association between receiving “too
many vaccines too soon” and autism, despite some fears among
parents around the number of vaccines given both on a single day
and over the first 2 years of life.
As many as one in 50 U.S. school-age children have been
diagnosed with autism, up 72 percent since 2007.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and Abt Associates analyzed data from children with
and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a
statement from the journal.
Researchers examined each child’s cumulative exposure to
antigens, the substances in vaccines that cause the body’s
immune system to produce antibodies to fight disease, and the
maximum number of antigens each child received in a single day
of vaccination, the journal’s statement said.
The antigen totals were the same for children with and
without ASD, researchers found.
Autism runs a spectrum from a profound inability to
communicate and mental retardation to milder symptoms seen in
Asperger’s Syndrome.
While scientists believe genetics account for 80 to 90
percent of the risk for developing autism, a growing number of
studies are beginning to suggest that a father’s age at the time
of conception may play a role by increasing risks for genetic
mistakes in the sperm that could be passed along to offspring.
Worries about a link between vaccines and autism have
persisted for years, despite a growing body of scientific
evidence disproving such an association.
(Reporting by Luciana Lopez; Editing by Sandra Maler)
