Measles virus in autistic children: wild or vaccine derived?

Kawashima, Mori, Kashiwagi, Takekuma, Hoshika & Wakefield.

Detection and Sequencing of Measles Virus from Peripheral Mononuclear Cells from Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Autism

Dig Dis Sci 45, 723–729 (2000)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005443726670

In this study researchers looked into the children with autism and bowel disease to see if they carry measles virus and to find out if this virus derives from wild or vaccine strains.

They carried out the detection of measles in eight patients with Crohn's disease, three patients with ulcerative colitis, and nine children with autistic enterocolitis. As controls, a total of eight cases, they examined healthy children and patients with SSPE (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis), SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus), HIV-1.

SSPE is a rare, progressive neurological disease caused by a mutated measles virus.

SSPE and SLE can be associated with HIV-1 infection, particularly in immunocompromised individuals.

“One of eight patients with Crohn disease, one of three patients with ulcerative colitis, and three of nine children with autism, were positive. Controls were all negative. The sequences obtained from the patients with Crohn's disease shared the characteristics with wild-strain virus. The sequences obtained from the patients with ulcerative colitis and children with autism were consistent with being vaccine strains.”