Testimony of Dr Andrew J Wakefield

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Testimony of Dr Andrew J Wakefield MB MS FRCS FRCPath
Committee on Government Reform June 2002
http://www.house.gov/reform/hearings/healthcare/02.06.19/index.htm

Mr Chairman and members of the Committee,

Before bringing you up to date with the research
linking MMR vaccine to regressive autism I will put
the record straight with respect to Dr Gershon’ s
testimony last year on the molecular detection of
measles virus in the laboratory of Professor O’Leary.
Dr Gershon’s testimony was false in relation to a
number of assertions, whether or not his testimony
constituted perjury or simply sloppy science. It is
not my wish to take up valuable time in this hearing
with the details of Dr Gershon’s unacceptable errors.
All correspondence and raw data have been provided to
the ranking majority and minority members. Merely by
way of illustration, he stated that tissues from
experimental animals not infected with measles virus
were positive in Professor O’Leary’s lab. In fact they
were all entirely and consistently negative on repeat
testing. Dr Gershon’s behaviour was a disgrace. I
would level the same charge at anyone who relies or
has relied in any way upon this testimony. I am not
surprised that Dr Gershon turned down the offer to
appear before this committee. Had he done so, I am
sure he would have enlightened the Committee, somewhat
belatedly, as to any proprietary rights his wife might
have in the Merck chickenpox vaccine patent.

The current sate of the science:

The association between MMR vaccine, autism and
intestinal inflammation was first suggested by my
group from the Royal Free Medical School in 1998 in a
paper published in the Lancet. The same research team,
in collaboration with Professor John O’Leary and Dr
Simon Murch from the Royal Free Hospital, has since
shown in a comprehensive series of eight peer-reviewed
scientific studies that the major findings of our
original study were correct. These papers are listed
as an appendix.

The sum of the research by my group and our
collaborators, taken together with additional work by
independent physicians and scientists in the United
States has now confirmed the following facts.

q Children with regressive autism and intestinal
symptoms have a novel and characteristic inflammatory
disease of their intestine (1-4).
q This disease is not found in developmentally normal
control children (2-4).
q This disease is entirely consistent with a viral
cause (5-8).
q This disease may be the source of toxic damage to
the brain (9).
q Measles virus has been identified in the diseased
intestine in the majority of children with regressive
autism studied, precisely where it would be expected
if were the cause of the intestinal disease (5,8).
q These children, who suffer the same pattern of
regressive autism and intestinal inflammation, come
from many countries including the US and Ireland where
they have been investigated and biopsied
independently.
q Measles virus has been found in only a small
minority of developmentally normal children (5).
q The measles virus in the diseased intestine of
autistic children is from the vaccine (11).
q Children with regressive autism appear to have an
abnormal immune response to measles virus (1a,2a)
q These findings are entirely consistent with parental
reports that their normally developing child regressed
into autism following exposure to MMR vaccine (1,11).

Confirmation of intestinal findings Other researchers
in the US have confirmed the presence of intestinal
inflammation in children with regressive autism (3a &
see testimony of DrA. Krigsman MD) and,
independently, the link with measles virus in children
who were given the MMR vaccine (12,13).

Measles virus sequencing Most significantly, a study
due to be presented at the Pathological Society of
Great Britain and Ireland, in Dublin at the beginning
of July has confirmed that the measles vaccine virus
is present in the diseased intestinal tissues of
children with regressive autism.

The Dublin researchers headed by Dr John O’Leary,
Professor of Pathology at Trinity College Dublin,
examined viral genetic material from intestinal
biopsies taken from 12 children with gastro-intestinal
disease and an autistic spectrum disorder. The viral
genetic material had already been identified as
measles in a study published in January in Molecular
Pathology. Using state of the art molecular science
the samples from these twelve children have now been
characterised as from vaccine strain measles virus.
This investigation continues. These data constitute a
key piece of evidence in the examination of the
relationship between MMR vaccine and regressive
autism. Re-challenge and biological gradient effects
for MMR/MR vaccines

A further key piece of evidence comes from examination
of “re-challenge” and “biological gradient” effects
for possible vaccine-related adverse events.
Re-challenge refers to a situation where re-exposure
of an individual to an agent (e.g. vaccine) elicits a
similar adverse reaction to that seen following the
initial exposure. The secondary reaction associated
with re-challenge may either reproduce the features
associated with the primary challenge, or may lead to
worsening of the condition that was provoked or
induced by the initial exposure.

During the course of our clinical investigation we
have observed that some children who received a second
dose of MMR, or boosting with the combined measles
rubella (MR) vaccine, experienced further
deterioration in their physical and/or behavioural
symptoms following re-exposure. In a report of April
2001, the Vaccine Safety Committee of the US Institute
of Medicine (IOM) stated that, in the context of MMR
vaccine as a possible cause of this syndrome,
“challenge re-challenge exposed would constitute
strong evidence of an association”[1].

In the context of adverse vaccine reactions, a
biological gradient refers to an increasing severity
of, or increased risk of developing, a particular
disease outcome. More severe bowel disease in children
with regressive autism who had received more than one
MMR/MR would be an example of this. We have undertaken
systematic evaluation of re-challenge and biological
gradient effects in children with regressive autism
who have undergone investigation at the Royal Free
Hospital.

“Exposed” - children with normal early development &
regressive autism who had received more than one
MMR/MR - were compared with age and sex matched
“unexposed” - children with normal early development &
with regressive autism who had received only one MMR
but otherwise similar baseline characteristics to the
exposed group. Comparisons included: secondary (2o)
developmental/behavioural regression; 2o physical
deterioration, prospective, observer-blinded scores of
endoscopic & microscopic disease severity.

In a preliminary analysis exposed children scored
significantly higher than unexposed children for: (i)
secondary regression on the basis of analyses
performed at the different levels, including: q
parental history q excluding those whose secondary
regression occurred following publication of the 1st
suggested MMR-autism link in 1998; and, q inclusion of
only those for whom independent corroborative evidence
of secondary regression was obtained from the records;

(i) secondary physical symptoms;
(ii) presence of severe ileal lymphoid hyperplasia;
and,
(iii) presence and severity of acute mucosal
inflammation.

No measures of disease were worse in unexposed than
exposed children.

These data identify a re-challenge effect on symptoms
and a biological gradient effect on severity of
intestinal inflammation that provide evidence of a
causal association between MMR and regressive autism
in these children. I have repeatedly requested a
meeting with Sir Liam Donaldson the UK’s Chief Medical
Officer to discuss the situation. His response has
been to refuse to meet, but instead to demand that we
send him the children’s samples. He has provided
absolutely no indication, in terms of scientific
protocol, how he would proceed to analyse these
samples. He has, as far as I am aware, no ethical
approval for analysing these samples. He may be
reassured to know that independent testing is being
conducted and that as part of the litigation process
in the UK, the Defendants are being provided with
identical samples for independent analysis.

The last seven days have seen a report, in the journal
Clinical Evidence, publicised as “new research”
disproving any links between autism and the MMR
vaccine. The authors specifically excluded clinical
research into bowel disease, immune disorders and
other documented features of autism that may relate to
a viral cause. They do not cite any of our
publications beyond the initial study of 12 children
in 1998. In fact, the Clinical Evidence paper was no
more than a review of the epidemiological studies,
including the Davis study that will be critically
reviewed during this hearing, that have already been
dismissed as irrelevant by an independent review
commissioned by the Institute of Medicine in the US.
Key Publications by Wakefield/O’Leary groups

1. Wakefield AJ, Murch SH, Anthony A, Linnell J,
Casson DM, MalikM, et al. Ileal LNH, non-specific
colitis and pervasive developmental disorder in
children. Lancet 1997; 351: 637-641.

2. Wakefield AJ, Anthony A, Murch SH, Thomson M,
Montgomery SM, Davies S, et al. Enterocolitis in
children with developmental disorder. American Journal
of Gastroenterology 2000; 95:2285-2295

3. Furlano RI, Anthony A, Day R, Brown A, McGavery L,
Thomson MA, et al. Colonic CD8 and ?d T cell
infiltration with epithelial damage in children with
autism. Journal of Pediatrics 2001;138:366-372

4. Torrente F, Machado N, Ashwood P, et al.
Enteropathy with T cell infiltration and epithelial
IgG deposition in autism. Molecular Psychiatry
2002;7:375-382

5. Uhlmann V., Martin CM., Shiels O., Pilkington L.,
Silva I., Lillalea A. Murch SH., Wakefield AJ.,
O’Leary JJ. Potential viral pathogenic mechanism for
new variant inflammatory bowel disease. Molecular
Pathology. 2002;55:1-6

6. Kawashima H., Takayuki M., Kashiwagi Y., Takekuma
K., HoshikaA., Wakefield AJ. Detection and sequencing
of measles virus from peripheral blood mononuclear
cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease
and autism. Digestive Diseases and Sciences.
2000;45:723-729

7. Wakefield AJ and Montgomery SM. Measles, mumps,
rubella vaccine: through a glass, darkly. Adverse Drug
Reactions & Toxicological Reviews 2000;19:265-283.

8. Wakefield AJ and Montgomery SM. Autism, viral
infection and measles mumps rubella vaccination.
Israeli Medical Association Journal 1999;1:183-187

9. Wakefield AJ, Puleston J., Montgomery SM., Anthony
A., O’Leary JJ., Murch SH. Review article: the concept
of entero-colonic encephalopathy, autism and opioid
receptor ligands. Alimentary Pharmacology and
Therapeutics 2002; 16: 663-674

10. Shiels O., Smyth P., Martin C., O’Leary JJ.
Development of anallelic discrimination type assay to
differentiate between strain origins of measles virus
detected in intestinal tissue of children with
ileocolonic lymphonodular hyperplasia and concomitant
developmental disorder. Pathological Society of Great
Britain and Ireland. Journal of Pathology. 2002 .A20

11. Wakefield AJ, Anthony A. Clinical characteristics
of children with autism and entero-colitis comparing
recipients of one and more than one measles-containing
vaccine (submitted). Publications by others

1. a. Singh V., Lin S., Yang V. Serological
association of measles virus and human herpesvirus-6
with brain autoantibodies in autism. Clinical
Immunology and Immunopathology. 1998:89;105-108

2. a. Singh VK. Neuro-immunopathogenesis in Autism.
2001. New Foundations of Biology. Berczi I &
Gorczynski RM (eds) Elsevier ScienceB.V. pp447-458

3. a. Horvath K, Papadimitriou JC, Rabsztyn A,
Drachenberg C, Tildon JT. Gastrointestinal
abnormalities in children with autism. Journal of
Pediatrics 1999; 135: 559-563> [1] Stratton K., Gable
A., Shetty P., McCormick M. Immunization Safety
Review: Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine and Autism.
National Academy Press. Washington DC. 2001.
www.iom.edu/imsafety

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/25/2002 - 9:02 PM

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First Dr. Buie at Harvard School of Medicine found measles colonizing the gut of 55% of the autistic children he studied and now this:

US Experts Back MMR Doctor’s Findings
UK Press Covers Burton MMR Vaccine/Autism Hearing.
Ignored by US Press
[By Lorraine Fraser.]
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F06%2F23%2Fnmmr23.xml

Scientists in America have reported the first
independent corroboration of the research findings of
Dr Andrew Wakefield, the specialist who has questioned
the safety of the childhood MMR vaccine. Dr Arthur
Krigsman, from New York University School of Medicine,
has observed serious intestinal inflammation in
autistic children identical to that described by the
controversial British doctor and his colleagues in a
research paper four years ago. Dr Krigsman’s discovery
is significant because it independently supports Dr
Wakefield’s conclusion that a previously unidentified
and devastating combination of bowel and brain disease
is afflicting young children - a claim that the
Department of Health has dismissed as “bad science”.

Dr Wakefield has seen nearly 200 previously normal
youngsters who apparently developed the combined
behaviour and digestive problems after receiving the
three-in-one measles, mumps and rubella jab - a
vaccination given routinely to babies and pre-school
children in Britain and the United States.
Pathologists at Trinity College, Dublin, have since
identified measles virus in bowel tissue samples from
75 of these children and, as reported in The Telegraph
last week, now claim to have evidence that the virus
comes from MMR.

The Department of Health refuses to accept that such
results cast doubt on MMR’s safety. A principal
criticism levelled at Dr Wakefield and his colleagues
is that no part of their research has been replicated
byscientists elsewhere. Last Wednesday, however, Dr
Krigsman reported that he had seen the same pattern of
illness in 43 American children. At a hearing of the
Government Reform Committee of the United States
Congress on the safety of MMR and other vaccines, he
said that - like the British children - his patients
had all inexplicably deteriorated, losing language and
other skills, at around 12 to 18 months of age. All
the children had a definite diagnosis of autism and
had come to him because they had symptoms of serious
digestive problems, such as pain, constipation and
diarrhoea, for which no explanation could be found.

“Our findings, which are independent of Dr Wakefield’s
findings, completely support his explanation and his
observations of the abnormalities in the bowels of
these children,” he said. The intestines of the
children were “not normal”, he added.

One13-year-old autistic boy, who had become so violent
that his parents had wanted to institutionalise him,
had the “worst case” of inflammation of the colon the
doctor had ever seen through a fibre-optic scope. Dr
Krigsman, an experienced consultant paediatric
gastroenterologist and an assistant professor at the
university, told the committee that he did not know
whether his patients’ illnesses were linked to MMR.
However, he now plans to have the biopsies he took
during the examinations tested independently to check
for evidence of measles virus infection. The results
will be awaited anxiously by parents and public health
officials in Britain, where the debate over the safety
of MMR began with the report from Dr Wakefield and
other doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in north
London in 1998.

Dr Krigsman’s research was among presentations
described as “significant findings” by Dan Burton, an
Indiana Congressman chairing the Congressional
committee.

Doctors in Britain and America are recognising more
autistic children than ever. The US National Institute
of Health estimates that one American child in 250 is
affected, compared with one in 10,000 a decade ago. A
recent survey by the National Autistic Society in
England suggested that one in 86 primary school pupils
may have the condition. Health officials in both
countries insist, however, that there is no evidence
to link this apparent increase with the use of MMR or
any other vaccine, and say there is no reason for
parents to worry.

In Britain, the Department of Health has rejected
calls to allow single measles vaccines on the NHS as
an alternative, claiming that numerous statistical
studies have concluded that MMR is safe. The
Congressional committee heard evidence from other
specialists suggesting that MMR and the mercury-based
preservative, Thimerosal, may both harm susceptible
children, possibly by altering their immune system.
Thimerosal is not used in MMR, but is contained in
other childhood jabs such as DTP - the diphtheria,
tetanus and whooping-cough vaccine.

Dr Jeff Bradstreet, the medical director of the
International Child Development Resource Centre in
Florida, disclosed that tests on his eight-year-old
autistic son Matthew - who received vaccines
containing mercury and the MMR jab - have found
particles of measles virus in the fluid that bathes
his brain and spine as well as in his intestines. Two
other boys with autism who, like Matthew, have
recently started to suffer seizures, also have measles
virus in their cerebrospinal fluid. While the
significance of this is not yet clear, Dr Bradstreet
said he was broadening his research in this area.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 06/26/2002 - 4:51 AM

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My wife and I see a Homeopath for our son. He is working at balancing the damage the MMR caused to our son. We have seen astonishing results. Our son prior to seeing our Homeopath would run for days at a time upon waking and seemed disconnected to the world around him . Now, he is maintaining attention, initiating social interactions, using words in a basic sentence structure (which is constantly improving).

Have you had your son’s copper levels tested in his blood and determined if there is a yeast infection in his intestinal tract. I would advise anyone to seek the help of a homeopath. I work in Health Care and am very much a skeptic but homeopathy is more of an effective treatment than any conventional medicine in my opinion.

Good luck,
Brad

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 06/27/2002 - 3:51 PM

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OK - I would really welcome comments on this. My daughter age 11.5 has NLD, and other quirky stuff (executive function disorder, dysgraphia, ADD, etc.). Also gifted. Some consider NLD , like Aspergers, to be on the “autistic spectrum” (others disagree).

HAve been doing various interventions for years — OT, speech, tutors, etc.

Now at the end of 6th grade she became EXTREMENLY weak, had bloody stool, diarrhea etc. Blood tests showed severe anemia, high rate of inflammation. She goes for colonoscopy next week.

So I read up on autism, mmr, intestinal inflammation and wonder. She is definitely not classically autistic.

Comments? THanks, Dad, for these posts. They are very important.

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 06/27/2002 - 9:59 PM

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I sincerely admire how imformative you are, Dad. I hardly know what to do with the imformation, though. It makes me very sad to consider the “what ifs”. My son is such a lovely and unusual person I’m not sure I would want him to change, but I certainly wish life was easier for him.

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/28/2002 - 3:07 AM

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hi brad,

very interesting, how would i go about finding a homeopath. i’ve never even heard of such a thing?

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/28/2002 - 9:03 AM

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I am sorry that your girl is having such a bad time Barb. I wish you all the luck in the world, but I am afraid I amnot going to be able to be much help on this. The potential group of children who are damaged by the MMR vax is a subset of the total autistic population, and it comes in two forms, the gut infection (Wakefield’s disease) and the skewed antibody response to myelin (Singh’s disease). The gut infection may or may not be testable using the biomarkers outlined by Repligen ( www.repligen.com se the press releases and then read the one that talks about the biomarkers).

Also, anemia can have several sources, one of which is elevated metals, especially lead, so at some point you may want to have her checked for that as well.

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/28/2002 - 4:32 PM

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My daughter has Aspergers, her cousin has Aspergers, and my brother has (undiagnosed) Aspergers or NLD—yet he never got a MMR shot. Maybe you are looking for explaination where there isn’t one other than genetics and the luck of the draw.

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/28/2002 - 7:36 PM

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Asperger’s is only one subset of the autism Spectrum. There is a strong genetic component to Asperger’s even if it is not identified yet.

The autism that Wakefield is looking at is not the same as Asperger’s. It hits typically developing children shortly after they have the MMR vaccine. Many proponents of mass vaccination call this causal. They cannot explain however why these children have colonies of measles in their gut (Wakefield, Buie, Krigsman) which lead to complex diestay issues which either induce or greatly aggravate autism (see www.gfcfdiet.com for greater detail), why some children have skewed immuno repsponses to the measle antigen leading to de-myelination (Singh), or why some have measles RNA in their spinal and cerebral fluid (Bradstreet), none of which is supposed to happen in vaccination, but all of which helps to explain the MR and other brain damage which occured after catching wild measles as was prevalant 40 years ago. Whether this is from the measles vaccination alone or a result of the triple shot MMR and compounding factor of intreoducing measles and mumps at the same time is still unknown (recall that the highest incidence of brain damge occured in children who caught the measles AND the mumps within a short period of time, defince in medical literature at the time as one year.)

I think that the strongest evidence aside from the new science being slowly brought to light now, and the literally hundreds and hundreds of reports from parents and other caregivers of the event of regression is the way autism increased in prevalance in the US (jump of nearly 300% within 2 years of introduction of MMR in 1971, second jump shortly after 1980, the year it became mandatory), the UK (jump in late 80’s, MMR introduced about that time), and AU (MMR introduced in early 90’s).

I post the news items I encounter for education purposes. I do not think my own autistic son (no familial history of autism, bi-polar, psychosis, schizophrenia, etc.) is an MMR baby because his titres were normal range, he does not have the digestive issues, and was not a regressor. I think his was the combination of genetic susceptibility to toxic metals coupled with his exposure to mercury and lead, both of which are well documented to cause brain damage with strong autistic characteristics.

Autism is different from many other types of LD’s, in that it is not a single condition, with defined causation. It is a collection of different medical problems which are lumped together because they have similar behavioral manifestations and cognitive impairments.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 06/29/2002 - 5:51 AM

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In Canada I looked under the College of Naturopathic Doctors on the internet. It gave me a list of homeopaths in my area who I then called and dsicussed with them the possibilty of treating my son. I’m sure the U.S. would have the same, if you have trouble let me know and I can ask my Homeopathic Doctor.

There are a lot of chaletans out there so I thought going through a professional college was the best bet. The treatments may sound unorthadox at times but I demand to see real proof in what is happening. For that reason we never tell the nursery school my son goes to about the homeopathic treatments. They always report the same improvements that we see.

Make sure it is a homeopathic Doctor. There are physicians that train in Homeopathy for a year and call themselves a homeopathic doctor. I’ve talked with parents bringing their children to see them , it is defintiely not the same thing.

Good luck,
Brad

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