With a concerning increase in measles cases in the Vancouver area, Europe and the US a new large-scale study found no evidence that the mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccine increases the risk of autism.
The research was conducted by a team at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark.
The team tracked 657,461 children born to Danish mothers in Denmark between 1999 and 2010 from the age of one until the end of August 2013, looking to determine if the MMR vaccine increased the risk for autism in children or in various subgroups.
After combing through data, which included MMR vaccination status, other vaccines, family history of autism, autism risk factors and autism diagnoses, the researchers found 6,517 of the children involved in the study were diagnosed with autism.
When comparing MMR-vaccinated and MMR-unvaccinated children, researchers found no increased risk of autism for those who had been vaccinated, including for those with a sibling history of autism.
The findings have been published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
The team determined their findings are in line with previous studies.
The reluctance or refusal to have children vaccinated, or anti-vaxxer movement, has been declared as one of the top 10 threats to global health by the World Health Organization (WHO).