Autism Link To MMR Cases To Be Heard In US Federal Court

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Main Category: Autism
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 11 Jun 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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The parents of a 12 year old girl from Arizona with autism who claim that the triple measles, mumps rubella vaccine (MMR) caused her condition, take her case before the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington DC today. This is the first time such a claim will have come before a court of law in America.

The lawyers are arguing three points: that the child's autism was triggered either by the MMR vaccine itself, or by other vaccines she received containing the mercury preservative thimerosol, or by both thimerosol and MMR.

There are more than 4,800 cases in the pipeline, filed by parents of children with autism who believe the condition was caused by childhood vaccines. The Court will hear cases in an omnibus session. The first case is likely to take three weeks.

The parents in the US are claiming compensation from a fund called the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) which collects 75 cents every time a vaccine is administered. The NVICP was set up in 1988 by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 as a no-fault alternative to the more conventional tort system for resolving injury claims, whether the vaccine is given in the public or private sector.

The NVICP fund is said to be worth 2.5 billion dollars.

The cases will not be heard by judges but by three "special masters" who in this case include a former army chief trial judge, and environmental lawyer and a tax claims expert.

When a claim is brought it is first reviewed by a doctor in the US department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to see if it meets the criteria for compensation. The HHS is the respondent and is represented in the Court of Federal Claims by an attorney from the Department of Justice.

Decisions of the Court of Federal Claims can be appealed to the Court, then to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, and eventually to the US Supreme Court.

Many scientists are concerned that a scientific question, whether MMR causes autism, is being tested in a court of law and not by scientific means. They point to the many research studies that show children who have the MMR vaccine are no more likely to develop autism than children who do not.

And, the case for thimerosal is weak, they say, because although this mercury based preservative was removed from children's vaccines (except flu) five years ago, the incidence of children with autism is still going up. However, this statistic has been disputed in some quarters, and it appears there are problems with definition, for instance what is meant by a "new case" is different in different ways of measuring incidence rates of development disorders.

There have been other studies that purport to show that autism is caused by MMR, but these have been heavily criticized.

The debate was said to be finally decided when a study was published in the journal Pediatrics in July last year by scientists at McGill University, Quebec, Canada who "ruled out an association between pervasive developmental disorder and either high levels of ethylmercury exposure comparable with those experienced in the United States in the 1990s or 1- or 2-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccinations."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the scientific evidence, as it stands, does not currently support the view that vaccines cause autism. However, because of the enormous public concern, the CDC continues to support further research on the question.

In the UK, a group of several hundred parents have been trying for the last 15 years to get a group action heard in the court, but a high court judge recently said their cases could not proceed. The group was severely affected when the legal aid money was stopped in 2004, by which time the legal bills had mounted to 15 million pounds.

However, the final blow came when a recent high court ruling allowed the scientific reports compiled by the drug companies that were fighting their cases to be sent to the HHS in the US, the respondents in the Court of Federal Claims action.

Click here for more information on the US National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Click here for Autism Society of America.

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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