Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrambled yesterday to reassure the public that childhood vaccines are safe after news spread that another agency had acknowledged a link between a child's autism and the shots she received as a toddler.
"Our message to parents is that immunization is life-saving," Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC's director, said at a hastily convened conference call with reporters. "There's nothing changed. ... This is proven to save lives and is an essential component of protection for children across America and around the world."
During the years, despite a small and vocal group of parents who insist otherwise, studies have consistently shown no credible link between vaccines and autism. But pediatricians who have long reassured suspicious parents braced for another cascade of questions.
FOR THE RECORD
A story about autism and vaccines in Friday's edition incorrectly stated that the preservative thimerosal is no longer used in any shot. It is in some versions of the flu shot.
The Sun regrets the error
Yesterday, the parents of Hannah Poling, now 9, took their case public, sharing news that federal health officials have conceded that a series of vaccines she got when she was 19 months old - and living in Ellicott City - worsened an underlying condition and ultimately led to her diagnosis of autism.
That concession - believed to be the first of its kind - makes her eligible for money from a federal vaccine-injury fund.
Many experts say Hannah's case is unique and that her rare condition led to a rare consequence. They say her case should not be extrapolated to the thousands of other autistic children whose parents say they believe they were harmed by the vaccines.
"This is not an admission that vaccines cause autism," said Dr. Neal Halsey, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
But the publicity surrounding the case - the family held a news conference yesterday on the courthouse steps in Atlanta and was expected to tell their story last night on CNN's Larry King Live - could set back public health officials' efforts to convince parents that polio, tetanus and measles are far more dangerous than the vaccines that protect against them.
"Vaccines have been the greatest leap forward in childhood health in 100 years," said Dr. Timothy Doran, a pediatrician at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. "There's no pediatrician who would vaccinate if they thought they [vaccines] were unsafe."
Doran said he spends "a tremendous amount of time" explaning to parents that vaccines do not cause autism. He said he reminds them that thimerosal - a mercury additive long used as a preservative - is no longer an ingredient in any shot.
