MMR Vaccine Does Not Increase the Risk of IBD
A possible link between measles-containing vaccines (such as the MMR, or measles-mumps-rubella vaccine) and IBD was highlighted when the UK authors of a 1995 study suggested that MMR recipients had a 3-fold increased risk of developing IBD. However, the methods used for data collection in that study have been questioned, some suggesting they were inadequate and prone to bias. Another study also reported a possible link between the MMR vaccine and IBD, when 12 children developed non-specific intestinal inflammation following MMR vaccine administration. However, this study also had methodological problems. As a result, doubt has remained about whether the reported relationship between the MMR vaccine and IBD is real or simply a result of the limitations of each study.
Media interest high
Despite the fact that the studies reporting this link were poor,
media speculation raised public interest and prompted a review
of the safety of the MMR vaccine.
New study
Recently, Dr Robert Davis of the Vaccine Safety Datalink Team
in the US, has published the results from a case-controlled study
investigating whether receipt or timing of measles-containing
vaccines (MCVs) increases the risk of IBD.
Good news
The study was designed specifically to reduce the methodological
problems of the other trials. The results indicate that there
is no evidence that vaccination early in life increases the risk
of IBD later in life. Furthermore, there was no evidence that
vaccination with the MMR or MCV vaccines triggered the acute
onset of an IBD.
No IBD risk with MMR
Therefore, MMR and other MCVs do not increase the risk for IBD.
Hence this issue should influence the decision about whether
or not to vaccinate yourself or your children against measles.
Written by Margaret Brens
(CCSG committee member)
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