The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7167 p425-429
29 September 2001

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Vaccines

The safety of MMR and DTP

From Professor P. Shattock, MRPharmS

Your news item (PJ, 8 September, p313) concerning the recent report by Barlow et al¹ is accurate and follows the line intended by the authors. However, scrutiny of the data reveals a different picture. The paper reports that 9.15 per cent (25 out of 273) of infants who had a febrile seizure went on to have one or more learning or development disabilities.

The paper states that this percentage is constant whether or not the febrile seizure was triggered by vaccination with DTP vaccine, MMR vaccine or occurred naturally. The paper also showed a significant (nine-fold) increase in the incidence of febrile seizures on the day of vaccination with the first DTP shot. The relative increase was again significant at almost three-fold the expected level between eight and 14 days after the MMR vaccine. This would correspond precisely with the period for incubation of the attenuated diseases contained in this vaccine. It follows, therefore, that there is a definite increase in the incidence of seizures and consequent epilepsy, learning disability and autism following vaccination with these particular products.

Far from providing the “reassurance” of safety referred to in your report, these data confirm the risk that so many parents believe they have seen evidenced in their children. These data were produced with the active involvement of the Centers for Disease Control. The spin required to convert these disastrous data into reassurances is considerable. I would invite all those who have accepted official reassurances of safety to investigate and evaluate the evidence and admire the audacity of the interpretation.

Paul Shattock
Sunderland, Tyne and Wear

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