News — The Lancet, a premier British medical journal, today retracted a study published in 1998 that drew a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and increased incidence of autism. Alan Percy, M.D., professor of pediatric neurology and medical director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Civitan International Research Center, said the retracted study鈥檚 findings long have been questioned by the scientific community.
鈥淥ver the years, study after study had found no causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism,鈥� said Percy. 鈥淭his was of particular concern since the 1998 study was often cited by parents as a reason to not vaccinate their children with the MMR vaccine.鈥�
According to The Lancet鈥檚 Web site, 鈥淚t has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation. In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were 鈥榗onsecutively referred鈥� and that investigations were 鈥榓pproved鈥� by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record.鈥�
The retraction should alleviate fears for parents over the safety of the MMR vaccine, Percy said. 鈥淚t underscores the safety and efficacy of vaccines, whether the MMR or others, and should restore the public鈥檚 confidence in vaccines鈥� ability to ward off these very serious illnesses.鈥�
Percy said today鈥檚 events also should reaffirm confidence in the scientific reporting system. The system of publishing scientific findings in peer-reviewed journals does work, he said, and today鈥檚 retraction serves as a reminder that scientific findings must be repeatable before they are accepted as scientific fact.
About UABKnown for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center and the state of Alabama鈥檚 largest employer. For more information, please visit
EDITOR鈥橲 NOTE: The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a separate, independent institution from the University of Alabama, which is located in Tuscaloosa. Please use University of Alabama at Birmingham on first reference and UAB on all consecutive references.
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