Lancet Editor Richard Horton said the retraction was prompted by a ruling last week by Britain’s General Medical Council.
That ruling held that the paper’s author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, had shown a “callous disregard” for the children used in his study and had acted unethically, The Associated Press said.
The AP also said a competing medical journal, BMJ, was to call on The Lancet formally to retract the controversial study in a commentary originally set to be published today.
The Lancet had previously said it should not have published the research.
No cases of measles, mumps or noncongenital rubella were confirmed in Montgomery County in 2009, according to Public Health — Dayton & Montgomery County. The last confirmed report of each of those diseases in the county was in 2005, 2008 and 2001, respectively.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 131 cases of measles were reported in 15 states and the District of Columbia between January and July 2008 — the highest year-to-date number of measles cases since 1996. More than 90 percent of those infected with measles had either not been vaccinated or had an unclear vaccination status.
While Kasten said there’s no direct association between immunizations and autism, she acknowledged some will still swear by the link.
“The autism community has a large group of folks who think autism is environmentally caused,” Kasten said. “People believe what they want to believe, and sometimes even good research studies can’t convince them.”
But even sound research hasn’t yet explained the rising number of autism cases. In 2006, one in 110 U.S. children had autism, with the prevalence of autism among 8-year-olds up 57 percent from four years earlier, according to a December 2009 CDC report.
While there are genetic associations in some autism cases, “odds are, it’s probably multifactorial,” Kasten said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or bsutherly@DaytonDaily News.com.
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