What if multiple laboratories confirmed the presence of measles virus in specimens from the intestines of children with autism? Would that indicate that measles causes autism?
A. Even if measles virus were consistently shown to be present in intestinal specimens of children, this would not conclusively indicate that measles causes autism. It is possible that the measles virus persists in the intestines of children with autism, ie, the measles virus in the intestine is a side effect of autism, not a cause. In addition, in order to implicate measles virus as a cause of autism, it would be important to show that measles virus is not present in the bowel of healthy children who are of the same age as the autistic children and have the same history of measles infection and the same vaccination status. Also, there is no scientific evidence to show how intestinal inflammation with measles virus would cause the chronic neurological and behavioral difficulties seen with autism.
Related Questions
- What if multiple laboratories confirmed the presence of measles virus in specimens from the intestines of children with autism? Would that indicate that measles causes autism?
- What if measles virus is shown to be associated with autism? Would that mean we should stop vaccinating against measles?
- What is the measles virus doing in the brain to cause autism?
