Andrew Wakefield

'''Dr. Andrew Wakefield''' (born 1957 in the United Kingdom) is a Canadian trained gastroenterologist, best known as the lead author of a controversial 1998 research study, published in the Lancet, which reported bowel symptoms among 12 children with autism spectrum disorders.http://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-paper.htm and claimed a possible link with MMR vaccination http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3513365.stm. In March, 2004, 10 of 12 study co-authors retracted their interpretation of a possible connection between the onset of symptoms and the vaccine;http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15016483, with the UK's General Medical Council announcing a disciplinary hearing into Wakefield's fitness to practise medicine. Since then, anti-vaccine campaigners have sought to obscure Wakefield's role.

Early career

After qualifying as a surgeon in 1981, Dr. Wakefield began his professional career in Canada specializing in bowel resection surgery. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985, and returned to the UK in the late 1980s. In the UK, his career turned toward academic research, when he was appointed to a non-clinical research position at the Royal Free Hospital medical school, part of the University of London. He published a number of studies which he said suggested a link between measles virus and Crohn's disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This led him to criticize, on UK television in 1995 and 1996, Vaccines, such as the MMR, which contain live measles virus In 1995, while conducting research into Crohn's, he was approached by Rosemary Kessick, the parent of an autistic child seeking help with her son's bowel problems http://briandeer.com/wakefield/dawbarns-kessick.htm. Kessick ran a group, Allergy Induced Autism http://www.autismmedical.com, focused on the effects of diet of autistic children's behavior. Wakefield began a study that ultimately included 12 children, including Kessick's son.

The MMR controversy

In February 1998, a team of 13 doctors led by Wakefield released a study of Kessick's son and 11 other children, in an early report, published by the Lancet. The report was instantly controversial, leading to widespread publicity in the UK, and the convening of a special panel of the UK's Medical Research Council the following month http://briandeer.com/mmr/wakefield-mrc.htm. Although the authors stressed that no causal connection had been proven, the report described what its authors suggested was a possible new syndrome, involving a potential link between bowel disease, autism, and MMR. The study reported parents of eight of the twelve children reported the onset of behavioral problems within two weeks of MMR vaccination. In their summary interpretations section of the paper, the authors wrote, "We identified associated gastrointestinal disease and developmental regression in a group of previously normal children, which was generally associated in time with possible environmental triggers." At the same time as the 1998 Lancet study was released, Wakefield called for suspension of the triple MMR vaccine at a press conference and in a video news release http://briandeer.com/wakefield/royal-video.htm issued by the hospital. He said: "If you give three viruses together, three live viruses, then you potentially increase the risk of an adverse event occurring, particularly when one of those viruses influences the immune system in the way that measles does." He suggested parents should opt for single jabs against measles, mumps and rubella, separated by gaps of one year. His warnings added fuel to the controversy and contributed to a drop in the number of children receiving MMR, as had been predicted in a letter to the government by Wakefield's chief at the hospital. http://briandeer.com/wakefield/roy-pounder.htm Shortly thereafter, single vaccines ceased to be available through the UK's National Health Service, with the government arguing Wakefield had produced no evidence to substantiate his claim, contending his recommendation of spaced single vaccines would expose children to greater risk of infection. In a February, 2002, Wakefield stated, "What precipitated this crisis was the removal of the single vaccine, the removal of choice, and that is what has caused the furor - because the doctors, the gurus, are treating the public as though they are some kind of moronic mass who cannot make an informed decision for themselves."http://www.sundayherald.com/22194 In December 2001, Wakefield resigned under pressure, just a month after becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in recognition of his research publications, saying, "I have been asked to go because my research results are unpopular." The medical school said that he had left "by mutual agreement."

Aftermath

In February of 2004, controversy resurfaced when Wakefield was accused of a conflict of interest. The London Sunday Times published a story wherein Wakefield acknowledged some of the 12 children in the Lancet study, were sent to him in execution of a £55,000 contract between a lawyer attempting to sue MMR manufacturers http://briandeer.com/wakefield/wakefield-deal.htm and the UK's Legal Aid Board. Wakefield claimed that this was part of a separate study and had no bearing on the Lancet paper.http://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-deer-1.htm In October 2003, the board, since renamed the Legal Services Commission, cut off public funding for the litigation http://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-lsc.htm, causing some plaintiffs in the lawsuit to claim that the newspaper was supporting their opponents. Twenty-four hours before the Sunday Times report, the Lancet responded to the investigation in a public statement, describing Wakefield's research as "fatally flawed," an allegation he rejects. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3510721.stm The journal's editor said that, if he had known of the legal involvement in the research, he would not have published it. Ten of Wakefield's 12 co-authors of the Lancet paper published a "retraction of an interpretation."http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15016483 The retraction stated: "We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient. However the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications for public health. In view of this, we consider now is the appropriate time that we should together formally retract the interpretation placed upon these findings in the paper, according to precedent." http://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-retraction.htm In November 2004, the UK's Channel 4 Television broadcast a one-hour investigation by Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer, which alleged that before the Lancet paper was published, Wakefield had filed a patent application http://briandeer.com/wakefield/vaccine-patent.htm for a single measles vaccine, and that his laboratory had failed to find measles virus in the children.http://briandeer.com/wakefield/nick-chadwick.htm The UK's General Medical Council is investigating the allegations,http://briandeer.com/wakefield/gmc-announce.htm which Wakefield denies. http://briandeer.com/wakefield/mmr-questions.htm Meanwhile, many parents with autistic children have come forward to tell of children who appeared to be developing normally until administration of MMR, but regressed soon after. Some also say their autistic children suffer from digestive problems and food intolerances. Other parents have criticised Wakefield's theory for making them feel guilty for having had their child vaccinated. Wakefield's medical critics say chance alone would explain a frequent temporal association between vaccination and the appearance of developmental disorders, since autism is commonly first revealed early in the second year of life, when MMR vaccination is routine. The Institutes of Medicine (IOM) http://www.iom.edu/report.asp?id=20155, along with the CDC, NIH, and FDA (and their British counterparts) deny that any link has been found between vaccines and autism. Researchers have also shown that "lymphoid nodular hyperplasia," the principal clinical observation in Wakefield's research, had been reported 15 years earlier as a benign finding in children http://briandeer.com/wakefield/ileal-hyperplasia.htm. While multiple epidemiological studies have concluded there is no evidence of any link between MMR and autism or bowel disease, Wakefield contends some of the data actually supports his thesis.http://www.redflagsweekly.com/articles/2005_mar06_2.html In June, 2005 the BBC program Horizon reported on an unpublished study examining blood samples from a group of 100 autistic children and 200 children without autism. They report finding 99% of the samples contained no trace of the measles virus, and the samples that did contain the virus were just as likely to be from non-autistic children. The study's authors found no evidence of any link between MMR and autism.

See also

 Wakefield, Andrew Category:Activists Category:Autism Wakefield, Andrew

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