Autism And Vaccines

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Autism and Vaccines: A Literature Review Autism is a serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact. It is a common disorder and in the U.S. alone there are 200,000 to 3 million cases. The cause for Autism is unknown and there is no cure but there is extensive therapy that autistic patients can go through. Through widespread media coverage, a common theory for the cause of autism was the use of thimerosal in vaccines and the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine. This literature review will go through the history behind vaccines, thimerosal and autism, studies that show evidence against the theory, a detailed article that proves the hypotheses about vaccinations and autism wrong, and a particular case in which…show more content…
The purpose of this study was to prove the hypothesis that the MMR vaccination is a cause of autism. According to the doctors, of 537,303 children in the study, 440,655 had received the MMR vaccine. The doctors then identified 316 children with autism and 422 with other autistic spectrum disorders. After lots of research the doctors found that there was no increase in the risk of autistic disorder or other autistic spectrum disorders with the vaccinated children compared to the unvaccinated children. According to the results of this particular study, the MMR vaccine has no correlation with the cause of autism. The doctors who conducted this study are confident in the results and believe that this study has provided society with strong arguments against the relation of the MMR vaccination and autistic spectrum disorders. This study is a well conducted study because it was one of the few studies that used optimal data for risk assessment as compared to the other studies that were cases, ecological studies, or cross-sectional…show more content…
The three hypotheses that the doctors researched were that the MMR causes autism by damaging intestines and allowing encephalopathic proteins to enter the body, thimerosal is toxic to the nervous system and causes autism, and lastly the multiple vaccinations given at one time overwhelms or weaken the immune system. The doctors were able to prove all these hypotheses wrong by looking at the multiple studies done for all of them and deciding if the studies were done accurately and correctly. Gerber and Offit were able to conclude that MMR vaccines and thimerosal do not cause autism. This article was a major article because it proved that the claims scientists and parents were making about the causes of autism were wrong. It was a great contribution to science and left the reader with a clear opinion about the controversial

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