Another study finds no Autism-Vaccine link

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New research has shown that a common childhood vaccination given to pregnant women does not put their children at any increased risk of autism.

A Kaiser Permanente study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics found no association between the prenatal Tdap (for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, also known as whooping cough) vaccine and autism spectrum disorder when looking at tens of thousands of children in the hospital system. It is the latest in a long line of studies showing that there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Using electronic medical records from Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospitals, the researchers studied more than 80,000 children from a four-year period to determine whether there were more instances of autism among those whose mothers had been vaccinated during pregnancy.

The research showed that 569 children (or 1.5 percent) whose mothers received the vaccination were later diagnosed with autism, compared with 772 children (or 1.8 percent) whose mothers did not get the shot. Becerra-Culqui said in an email that after taking into account other differences between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, “there was no association found between the Tdap vaccine received during pregnancy and autism in children.

Another study finds no Autism-Vaccine link.