Written question asked by Margaret Ewing (Scottish National Party) on Friday, 2 February 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 March 2001. It was answered by Yvette Cooper (Labour) on Monday, 19 March 2001 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department received the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's review of the abstract presented to the American Association of Immunologists and Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology meeting in San Francisco in 1998 by Dr. V. K. Singh on autism and the MMR vaccine; and what the conclusions of this review were. - Inc ref to the abstract by Dr VK Singh entitled 'Positive titers of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) antibody are related to myelin basic protein autoantibody in autism'. (Holding answer 8 February 2001).

Answer: Mrs. Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when his Department received the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's review of the abstract presented to the American Association of Immunologists and Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology meeting in San Francisco in 1998 by Dr. V. K. Singh on autism and the MMR vaccine; and what the conclusions of this review were. [149343] Yvette Cooper: [holding answer 8 February 2001]:The abstract by Dr. V. K. Singh entitled "Positive titers of measles and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) antibody are related to myelin basic protein autoantibody in autism" which he had forwarded to the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists/Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology held in San Francisco on 22 April 1998, was considered by the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI) at its meeting held in October 1998. The JCVI concluded that the abstract did not provide any information to alter its views on the safety of MMR vaccine.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 365 c89W; 149343
Session: 2000-01
Subjects: Autism Publications MMR vaccine Vaccination Reviews Mumps Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation Measles
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk