A new report on the safety of vaccines recommended for children aged six years and younger, conducted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), reveals some comforting news on vaccines for children under age 6, including DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis), hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, meningococcal, MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), and varicella vaccines.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says, “The evidence is strong that MMR vaccine is not associated with autism.” The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agrees that autism is not related to the MMR vaccine. Research shows that signs of autism generally appear around the same time a child receives the MMR vaccine, which could lead many parents to associate the two. The CDC says, however, their vaccine experts along with AAP vaccine safety experts have examined the vaccine closely and have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The CDC also says there is no link between autism and vaccines that contain thimerosal as a preservative.
IOM’s new report includes studies on Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), pneumococcal, rotavirus, and inactivated poliovirus vaccines, which were not included in the 2014 report. The latest IOM report also shows strong evidence that MMR, DTaP, Td (tetanus), Hib and hepatitis B vaccines are not associated with childhood leukemia. An article, Risk of Childhood Leukemia Associated with Vaccination, Infection, and Medication Use in Childhood, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, finds there is no association between childhood leukemia and exposure to the common vaccines MMR, DTP, poliomyelitis, hepatitis, or Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccines.
Medical speak about these issues can be hard to follow at times, so let us break it down for you. The vaccines we recommend your children receive have been studied and restudied vigorously by the world’s top experts, and they will continue to study these vaccines vigorously in order to ensure the safety and health of our children. We understand parent’s worries and concerns, which is why we’ve scoured medical journals and related articles to bring you the facts.
References:
A September 2008 case-control study published in Public Library of Science (PLoS) was conducted in 2004-2008 to determine whether results from an earlier study that claimed to find measles virus RNA in the intestinal tissue of a specific group of autistic children could be confirmed. The results could not be confirmed, and no link between MMR and autism was found.
A February 2004 case-control study examined the possible relationship between exposure to the MMR vaccine and autism in Atlanta, Georgia. The results were published in Pediatrics.
http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/Systematic-Revi…
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/167/5/598.long
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The Children’s Wellness Center is a private practice in Chicago’s south suburbs that is committed to providing high quality medical care for healthy and sick children from birth to 18-years-old and supporting their families. All of our physicians are Board Certified in Pediatrics and fellows of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
