Autism Not Linked to Immunization: Debunking the Myth

National Parent Organization Underscores Commitment to Helping Children Live Stronger and Healthier Lives

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The national parent advocacy organization, PKIDs (Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases), is committed to protecting our nation's children against diseases that have life-long effects on their health and development. In response to a U.S. House Government Reform Committee hearing on autism, PKIDs voices its support for more resources for autism research and stresses that there is no scientific evidence linking autism to immunization.

"There is a long way to go in understanding autism. As a nation, we cannot ignore the need for research to find a cure for this severe and very prevalent neurological disorder," said Trish Parnell, director of PKIDs. "Autism affects more than 400,000 families and costs the nation over 13 billion dollars a year -- it deserves as much public attention and research as other childhood diseases."

Although autism is currently the third most common developmental disorder, it receives less than five percent of the funding for research of other childhood diseases, like multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis. Funding for research into diseases such as autism is an integral part of finding a cure.

In hopes of improving the quality of children's health across the country, PKIDs lends its support to H.R. 3301, the "Children's Health Research and Prevention Amendments of 1999" that would amend the Public Health Service Act in regards to children's health.

NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE LINKING IMMUNIZATION TO AUTISM
While PKIDs advocates for additional resources for autism research, it does not condone the spread of false and misleading information linking autism to childhood vaccination. PKIDs strongly encourages parents to continue immunizing their children with scientifically proven safe and effective vaccines.

"Today's high immunization rates are what is protecting us from outbreaks of measles, rubella, diphtheria and polio," said Dr. Ed Marcuse, Director, Medical Services at Seattle's Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. "If we stopped vaccinating, costly outbreaks of these vaccine-preventable diseases would return as surely as spring follows winter with devastating consequences for some families."

Over the past 50 years, vaccines have gained control over or virtually eliminated diseases that used to be very common in the U.S., including measles, diphtheria, polio, smallpox, rubella, Hib meningitis and mumps. But, other diseases such as hepatitis B, varicella and pneumococcal meningitis are still common, resulting in serious illness for many families. In fact, even in the U.S., where immunization rates are the highest, approximately 1 million pre-school children are not adequately protected against potentially disabling or fatal diseases that can be prevented by immunization.

April 6, 2000

CONTACT: For more information, please call 877-55-PKIDS or log onto www.pkids.org.