A Large Study Provides More Evidence That MMR Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism

There’s strong new evidence that a common childhood vaccine is safe.

A large study released Monday finds no evidence that the vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella increases the risk of autism. The study of children born in Denmark is one of the largest ever of the MMR vaccine.

“The study strongly supports that MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism,” the authors write in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “We believe our results offer reassurance and provide reliable data.”

The study’s first author, epidemiologist Anders Hviid of the Staten Serum Institute in Copenhagen, added in an email: “MMR does not cause autism.”

In the study, researchers analyzed data collected from all children born in Denmark to Danish-born mothers between 1999 and 2010.

Among the 657,461 children included in the analysis, 6,517 were diagnosed with autism over the next decade. But there was no overall increased risk for the developmental disorder among those who received the MMR vaccine when compared with those who had not gotten the vaccine, the researchers found.

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