By STAFF - CTV NEWS
Added: Thu, 09 Aug 2012 17:56:27 UTC

Thanks to rod-the-farmer for the link

A British website claiming to offer parents advice on vaccines has been ordered to remove wording that suggests the MMR vaccine is linked to some cases of autism.

Babyjabs.co.uk, which promotes single vaccines, said the three-in-one MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella may be causing autism in "up to 10 per cent" of autism cases in “susceptible children” in the United Kingdom.

In fact, any link between the vaccine and autism has been thoroughly discredited. The single study that started the rumour of a link, written in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, has since been shown to be scientifically and ethically flawed. Wakefield has since been barred from practising medicine in the U.K. He continues to defend his research and conclusions.

The Advertising Standards Authority ruled Wednesday that the claims made on Babyjabs.co.uk were misleading and must not appear again.

The website has been ordered not to repeat claims that research “has been unable to exclude the possibility that (the MMR vaccine) is causing autism in a small number of susceptible children.”

It’s also been told not to repeat the unfounded claim that the vaccine-strain measles virus had been found in the gut and brain of some autistic children, suggesting the MMR vaccine as the cause of the autism in those children. The website has also been ordered not to make other misleading claims about autism, including the suggestion that "most experts now agree the large rise (in autism) has been caused partly by increased diagnosis, but also by a real increase in the number of children with autism."

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TAGGED: HARM, PSEUDOSCIENCE