ABSTRACT
Dr Baird’s study was based on a community sample drawn from the South Thames region of 250 children aged between ten and 12 who had all received at least one MMR jab. The sample included 98 children who had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and two control groups, 52 children who had been identified as having special educational needs, but were not autistic, and 90 ‘typically developing’ children. The children with autism underwent a standardised assessment and were
classified into ‘broad’ and ‘narrow’ ASD groups and into those who had manifested ‘regression’ and those who had not lost skills. Parents completed a standard questionnaire to identify gastrointestinal symptoms consistent with Dr Wakefield’s syndrome of ‘autistic enterocolitis’. Blood samples were tested for measles virus (which would suggest the presence of persisting infection following immunisation) and for antibodies to measles (which would suggest that they were protected against measles infection).
