疫苗導致自閉症? 騙局一場 (yahoo news 6 Jan 2011)

FoEE

From Yahoo News (http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/110106/8/m31a.html)
(法新社)2011年1月6日 星期四 08:50
（法新社巴黎6日電） 「英國醫學期刊」（BMJ）今天指出，1998年公布的1份研究報告，把兒童自閉症
與1種三合一疫苗扯上關係，引發大恐慌，不過其實只是場「精心策劃的騙局」。
這份報告被控曾經讓治療麻疹、腮腺炎與德國麻疹的MMR三合一疫苗，在英國被大規模抵制，「刺胳針」期刊（Lancet）去年撤回這份報告，作者也身敗名裂，英國還為這樁利益衝突及醫療不道德，召開歷時最久的聽證會。
不過BMJ不就此打住，今天指控這份報告意圖精心欺騙，罪名堪稱醫學研究界中最嚴重。
BMJ把矛頭指向主要作者威克菲德（AndrewWakefield），他當時是倫敦皇家自由醫院（Royal FreeHospital）的1名實驗腸胃病學顧問。
威克菲德的研究團隊指出，他們在12名兒童身上發現自閉症與腸病新症狀。
他們把這與MMR疫苗畫上關連，說8名兒童出現症狀前不久才由他們施打疫苗。
其他專家立即警告這項研究的採樣太少，也沒有對照組，症狀日期的斷定只根據家長回憶，被一致認為相當不可靠，且日後研究也未再出現類似結果。
不過這項爭議引發英國家長大規模抵制疫苗，還蔓延至美國、加拿大、澳洲和紐西蘭。
BMJ指出，英國數十萬兒童目前未受到疫苗保護，2008年，英格蘭和威爾斯宣布痲疹大流行。
威克菲德去年被禁止行醫，理由是財務利益衝突，以及對研究中部分兒童的不道德醫療。
BMJ指出，威克菲德口中所謂罹患「退行性自閉症」的9名兒童，只有1人有明顯症狀，另外3人根本就沒被診斷出自閉症。
BMJ指出，這項研究事先就被扭曲，研究對象還是由反疫苗人士募集。
BMJ指出，威克菲德從1間準備與疫苗廠對簿公堂的法律事務所，私下收受數十萬英鎊。
據傳威克菲德已經離開英國，在美國執業，不過還是有一群人挺他。（譯者：中央社李威翰）



English version
Autism-vaccine study was 'fraud,' journal says

From Yahoo news 6 Jan 2011 (http://asia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20110106/tts-health-disease-vaccine-autism-c1b2fc3.html)

PARIS (AFP) - – A 1998 study that unleashed a major health scare by linking childhood autism to a triple vaccine was "an elaborate fraud," the British Medical Journal (BMJ) charged Thursday.
Blamed for a disastrous boycott of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in Britain, the study was retracted by The Lancet last year and its senior author disgraced, after the country's longest-running hearing, for conflict of interest and unethical treatment of patients.
But the BMJ, taking the affair further, on Thursday branded the paper a crafted attempt to deceive, among the gravest of charges in medical research.
"The paper was in fact an elaborate fraud," the BMJ said in an editorial, adding: "There are hard lessons for many in this highly damaging saga."
It pointed the finger at lead author Andrew Wakefield, then a consultant in experimental gastro-enterology at London's Royal Free Hospital.
Wakefield and his team suggested they had found a "new syndrome" of autism and bowel disease among 12 children.
They linked it to the MMR vaccine, which they said had been administered to eight of the youngsters shortly before the symptoms emerged.
Other scientists swiftly cautioned the study was only among a tiny group, without a comparative "control" sample, and the dating of when symptoms surfaced was based on parental recall, which is notoriously unreliable. Its results have never been replicated.
But the controversy unleashed a widespread parental boycott of the jab in Britain, and unease reverberated also in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Hundreds of thousands of children in Britain are now unshielded against these three diseases, said the BMJ. In 2008, measles was declared endemic, or present in the wider population much like chicken pox, in England and Wales.
Wakefield was barred from medical practice last year on grounds of conflict of financial interest and unethical treatment of some children involved in the research.
The BMJ, delving into the accuracy of the study as opposed to its ethics, said Sunday Times investigative journalist Brian Deer had "unearthed clear evidence of falsification."
Not one of the 12 cases, as reported in the study, tallied fully with the children's official medical records, it charged.
Some diagnoses had been misrepresented and dates faked in order to draw a convenient link with the MMR jab, it said.
Of nine children described by Wakefield as having "regressive autism," only one clearly had this condition and three were not even diagnosed with autism at all, it said.
The findings had been skewed in advance, as the patients had been recruited via campaigners opposed to the MMR vaccine, the journal added.
And, said the BMJ, Wakefield had been confidentially paid hundreds of thousands of pounds (dollars, euros) through a law firm under plans to launch "class action" litigation against the vaccine.
Deer, in a separate piece published by the BMJ, compared the scandal with the "Piltdown Man" hoax of 1953, when a supposed fossil of a creature half-man, half-ape turned out to be a fake.
The Wakefield study "was a fraud, moreover, of more than academic vanity. It unleashed fear, parental guilt, costly government intervention and outbreaks of infectious disease," he said.
Wakefield, who still retains a vocal band of supporters, has reportedly left Britain to work in the United States.
Wakefield and his publishing agent did not respond to calls and emails from AFP requesting comment.
Wakefield has previously accused Britain's General Medical Council (GMC) of seeking to "discredit and silence" him and shield the British government from responsibility in what he calls a "scandal."
The Lancet told AFP it would not comment on the BMJ accusations.
Autism is the term for an array of conditions ranging from poor social interaction to repetitive behaviours and entrenched silence. The condition is rare, predominantly affecting boys, although its causes are fiercely debated.

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