RULINGS EXPECTED TODAY IN VACCINATION-AUTISM CONNECTION CASE
A Department of Justice special court will hand down rulings today in cases asking whether certain vaccines cause autism in children.
Parents in three test cases which were heard in 2007 alleged that exposure to thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative which is found in some some vaccines, combined with the MMR (measels, mumps, rubella) vaccine caused autism in their children. The government defended by aruging that the parents' claims were not supported by "good science." Presently, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Institute of Medicine have found no credible link between vaccinations and autism.
Today's ruling will affect only families that claim MMR vaccines and thimerosal-containing vaccines can combine to cause autism. Families who have claimed that thimerosal-containing vaccines alone or that MMR vaccines alone can cause autism will be unaffected by today's decision.
Since 2001, thousands of parents with autistic children have filed petitions seeking compensation with Vaccine Injury Compensation Program at the Department of Health and Human Services. By mid-2008, more than 5,300 cases were filed in the program, 5,000 of which await adjudication.
