Is there a link between autism and vaccinations?

A possible link between autism and vaccinations was the last thing on my mind when we brought our daughter home from China.

Truthfully, we suspected she had not received any vaccinations at all in China. Or, at least we thought the vaccinations she received may have been of limited efficacy. Therefore, we followed the advice of health care professionals and started her immunization schedule from scratch once we got her home.

At the time, I knew of no association between autism and vaccinations. This controversy was not addressed in any of my pharmacy school classes. It wasn’t until we adopted our son a few months later that I began hearing about the debate.

Both our son and daughter are up to date on all of the vaccinations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I must admit, however, with each one I had growing concern that they might develop autism later.

At the heart of the debate is the mercury compound known as thimersol. This chemical was used as a preservative in vaccines to increase their shelf life.

Fortunately, manufacturers removed thimersol from all vaccines in 2002 because they wanted to limit the exposure of infants to mercury. So, the link between autism and vaccinations became less of a concern for us.

But what about all those children who received vaccinations before thimersol was removed?

According to Todd Zwillich in his article “Activists Allege Influence Over Vaccine Studies,” parents claim “millions of exposures before then (the removal of thimersol from vaccines) helped cause a spike in autism cases since the 1980s.”

Therefore, they are now calling for the release of “previously undisclosed transcripts and emails that they say point to efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to manipulate the IOM’s [Institute of Medicine’s] scientific conclusions on the safety of vaccines containing thimerosal.”

The CDC, however, stands behind the conclusion of the studies. That is, researchers “found no evidence of a link (between autism and vaccinations) and concluded that proposed biological explanations for a mercury-autism relationship were ‘theoretical.’”

Still, the parents want more information about the studies. I can understand their concern.

Zwillich T. Activists Allege Influence Over Vaccine Studies. 2006