Another study debunks the autism and vaccination link.

So much media hype has been given to the supposed connection between autism and vaccines. Medical experts have already disputed this, but the belief still persists. Just this month, results of another study are out showing no increased risk of autism for children who received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

In this latest study, Polish researchers compared 96 children with autism with 192 children who did not have the disorder, looking for any relationship between measles vaccination and autism. They found no evidence that children who were vaccinated for measles were more likely to develop autism — wether given as a separate shot, or as part of the 3-in-one MMR vaccination.

The Polish researchers said they reached their conclusion after adjusting for autism risk factors, including mother’s age and education, length of gestation, medications during pregnancy and the child’s condition after birth.

In fact, vaccinated children were found to be less likely to develop autism, especially those who’d gotten the MMR vaccine. Researchers did note that this finding could be due to other unmeasured factors affecting the children’s health.

“For example, health-care workers or parents may have noticed signs of developmental delay before the actual autism diagnosis and, for this reason, have avoided vaccination,” wrote the team, led by Dorota Mrozek-Budzyn, of Jagiellonian University Medical College, in Krakow.

The study appears online and will be published in the May print issue of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Results of this new study came out about a week after The Lancet retracted a 1998 report suggesting that the MMR vaccine contributes to autism risk. At the time, the Lancet study alarmed many parents and led to major declines in measles and MMR vaccination rates in some places.

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