David Gee 4 / Alamy
There is a persistent belief that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine can cause autism, despite a substantial body of evidence to the contrary. The latest such study, which included 95,727 children with older siblings, found that receipt of the MMR vaccine was not associated with the risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), irrespective of whether the older sibling had ASD.
As expected, children whose older sibling had ASD were more likely to have ASD themselves compared with children with unaffected siblings. However, MMR vaccination was not associated with risk of ASD at any age.
“These findings indicate no harmful association between MMR vaccine receipt and ASD even among children already at higher risk for ASD,” the researchers write in JAMA
[1]
(online, 21 April 2015).
