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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

No evidence of link between autism, vaccines

I must respond to the letter from Jena Dalpez regarding vaccinations. ("Current vaccination schedule unsafe for kids," Letters, Sept. 3)

Vaccines are one of the most successful programs in modern health care. There is only one reason her opt-out strategy can work. That's because most of the rest of us take the socially responsible position of giving our children vaccines. She, and others like her, are playing the role of public health freeloaders. Without most of the rest of society opting-in, her children's risk of getting a serious childhood illness becomes unacceptable and unreasonable.

She tells us that she has done "much research." There is not a single published peer reviewed study that supports her position.

Autism is a neurological disorder that generally manifests itself in the first few years of life, coincidentally; the same time frame children get vaccinations. There have been numerous published peer reviewed studies looking for a connection between autism and vaccines. None has been found. Evidence is accumulating that autism is largely a genetic disorder. The evidence most closely supports the notion that our increased ability to identify autism is what has led to the increased incidence. For example, a study in the British Medical Journal found that autism rate continued to climb in areas where MMR vaccination was not increasing. Other studies have shown that there is no difference in the rate of autism diagnosed between vaccinated and unvaccinated children (Madsen 2002).

The maximum annual report of measles was 894,134. With vaccines, the annual report for 2004/5 was 66 cases, a 99.99 percent reduction. Diphtheria, hepatitis A, measles, pertussis, polio, rubella and tetanus have all been reduced by more than 80 percent due to vaccines.

Please don't let myths and misconceptions keep you from vaccinating your children and continuing this freedom from dangerous, handicapping, potentially fatal diseases.

Martin Haight
Mountlake Terrace