Childhood vaccination and type 1 diabetes no link found

Main Category: Diabetes
Article Date: 02 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT


A Danish study has found no connection between childhood vaccination and type 1 diabetes despite previous concerns that the two are linked.

A population-based cohort study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found no evidence to support any causal relationship.

The study prospectively followed all children born in Denmark between 1990 and 2000.

Data regarding diagnoses of type 1 diabetes were obtained from the Danish National Hospital register, while dates of vaccination were provided by the National Board of Health.

Among the nearly 740,000 children, there were 681 cases of type 1 diabetes.

The investigators could find no significant increase in diabetes in the 3 or 4 years after vaccination.

'This study will, one hopes, be the last one that is necessary to disprove an association between immunization and diabetes,' Dr. Lynne L. Levitsky, of Harvard Medical School, Boston, writes in an accompanying editorial.

'The scientific community should now move on to the most important tasks: identifying the genetic, immunologic, and environmental phenomena that are actually responsible for the development of diabetes and finding the means to prevent and treat this chronic disorder.'

Reference:Haviid A et al (2004) Childhood Vaccination and Type 1 Diabetes N Engl J Med 350 (14) 1380-1382,1398-1404

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