The MMR immunisation was introduced in the UK in 1988 with the first dose aimed at children of 12-15 months, a the second dose at 3-5 years. It is designed to protect against measles, mumps and rubella (German Measles) and works by stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies against the viruses without causing harm. It was so well received by both parents and doctors that over 90 per cent of children were being immunised by 1992.

Most children received the vaccine with no obvious serious side-effects, but some became seriously ill within a few weeks. These children began behaving strangely, stopped talking and became socially withdrawn, staring into space for hours on end. Many developed a raging thirst, bizarre eating habits, multiple food allergies, hyperactivity and sleep problems. This was usually accompanied by abdominal pain, bloating and bowel disturbances. Some children became incontinent of urine or feces. Their development deteriorated. Thousands of children now fall into this category of abnormal development only after receiving the vaccine.

Professor John O'Leary, Director of Pathology at the Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin, told the US Congress in April, 2000, that he had produced compelling evidence of an association between autism and the MMR vaccine. Professor O'Leary found the measles virus in the guts of 24 out of 25 children who had developed autism, after an apparently previously healthy infancy.

His research supported the findings of Andrew Wakefield, of the Royal Free Hospital, London, who claimed there was an etiological implication between persistent measles virus infection or measles vaccination and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), mainly on the basis of epidemiological and immunohistochemical findings. Dr. Wakefield identified "autistic enterocolitis", an inflammation of the gut in 150 autistic children who became autistic after receiving the vaccine.

Dr. Aitken, based at Edinburgh University, said, "The substantial increase in cases in the US began about three years after MMR vaccine was introduced and the same thing happened three years after MMR was introduced in Britain. There has been a national increase throughout Britain and I find it very surprising that the change is so tightly linked in time with when triple vaccine was introduced."
On February 28, 1998, Wakefield reported in The Lancet a possible connection among inflammatory bowel disease, autism, and viral infection associated with measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination. The damage from autism is thought to be provoked by an allergic reaction initiated by the body's reaction to the vaccine. This auto-immune response may also reduce levels of the dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-IV enzyme, thereby connecting vaccines to the opioid theory of autism.

Andrew Wakefield did his first colonoscopy on an autistic child, because the anguished mother begged him to find the reason why her son had such terrible gastrointestinal problems. Finding some very specific pathology, Dr. Wakefield proceeded to investigate 11 more autistic children, again finding similar pathology in all children. These children had lost acquired skills, including communication, after a period of apparent normality.
Among eight of the children, the onset of behavioral problems had been linked, either by the parents or the child's physician, with MMR vaccination Five had an early adverse reaction to immunization (rash, fever, delirium, and seizures in 3). The average interval from exposure to first behavioral symptom was 6.3 days (range: 1-14 days).
Among the remaining 4 children, one received monovalent measles vaccine at 15 months, after which his development slowed. A striking deterioration then occurred in his behavior at age 4.5 years, the day after he received an MMR vaccine. A second child received the MMR vaccine at 16 months, developing at 18 months a combination of recurrent, antibiotic resistant, otitis media, along with his first behavioral symptoms (lack of interest in siblings and lack of play). A third child received an MMR at 15 months, experienced recurrent "viral pneumonia" for the next 8 weeks, and developed behavioral symptoms 4 weeks after the MMR ( loss of speech development and deterioration in language skills). The fourth child developed self- injurious behavior 2 month after the MMR.

Urinary methylmalonic acid excretion was significantly raised in all children tested (8 of the 12). Ten of the twelve children showed lymphoid nodular hyperplasia of the terminal ileum on endoscopy. The eleventh child had prominent luteal lymph nodes and the ileum was not reached in the twelfth (who had an ulcer in the rectum along with chronic colitis).

Wakefield, concluded that a subset of autistic people may suffer brain inflammation resulting from infections that began in their intestines after they were inoculated with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Theoretically, this condition could occur after naturally-acquired infection as well. The pro-vaccine community would argue, if this is true, that vaccination still reduces the incidence of disease by reducing the number of infections.
Wakefield's studies received enormous press attention in the United Kingdom. The immediate result of Dr.Wakefield's paper was a vitriolic attack from every front. A flood of opposing articles appeared in the same issue of The Lancet, and systematic criticism, nearing persecution, of Dr. Wakefield began, and is still going on. Rates of vaccination against measles fell to about 85 percent last year. Epidemiologists have been predicting a measles epidemic to result. Ireland reported an outbreak of 300 measles cases as of summer, 2000, compared to only 30for all of 1999. Two of the new cases were infants who had to be hospitalized with pneumonia complications.

Distraught parents of affected children have become even more confused, because no one has been able to prove conclusively to them yet, that an MMR vaccine-Autism connection does not really exist.