Fact or Myth: Do Vaccines (Teeke) Cause Autism in Children?

Verdict: Myth. Vaccines (teeke) do not cause autism; the one paper that started the scare was found to be dishonest and withdrawn, and very large research since then has found no link.

If you’re a parent who has lain awake worrying about this, you’re not silly and you’re not alone. You love your child, you’ve heard something frightening, and you want to be careful. That’s exactly the right instinct. This article, part of our Fact or Myth series and the Bachon Ki Sehat section, walks through where the fear came from and what is now known, calmly and without blame.

Prefer to listen? This post as a 2 min video · Watch the video

Where the vaccines and autism fear came from

In 1998 a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, published a small paper in The Lancet about 12 children. It suggested a possible link between the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella), gut problems and autism. It got huge press attention, it was repeated on television and in newspapers for years, and many parents in the UK and elsewhere, frightened and trying to do right by their children, stopped vaccinating or delayed it.

Then it fell apart. A journalist, Brian Deer, found that the children’s histories had been misreported and that Wakefield had undisclosed financial interests, including payments linked to lawyers preparing a case against vaccine makers. In 2004 most of his co-authors publicly withdrew their support for the paper’s interpretation, saying the data could not show what the paper had implied, and the journal began to look again at how it had been produced. In 2010 The Lancet fully retracted the paper, and the UK’s General Medical Council struck Wakefield off the medical register for serious professional misconduct. He can no longer practise medicine in the UK.

Why the link can feel real

This is the part worth understanding, because it’s why kind, intelligent parents still worry. The first signs of autism, such as fewer words, less eye contact or losing skills, often become noticeable in the second year of life. That is also when several vaccines, including MMR, are given. Two things happening at the same age can look like one causing the other, especially to a parent who is looking back over photos and videos at two in the morning, searching for the moment things changed and for a reason that would make sense of it.

Autism diagnoses have also risen in many countries over the past few decades, and much of that rise comes from wider definitions, better awareness and more screening, not from something new harming children.

What the evidence shows, simply

After 1998, scientists in many countries checked the question properly, following very large groups of children, vaccinated and unvaccinated, over years. In Denmark alone, researchers followed several hundred thousand children using national health records. Vaccinated children were no more likely to be diagnosed with autism than unvaccinated ones, including children who had a brother or sister with autism.

Same answer, again and again. The World Health Organization and paediatric bodies worldwide agree: there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Another worry was thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative once used in some vaccines. It was taken out of routine childhood vaccines in the US around 2001 as a precaution, and autism diagnoses there kept rising afterwards, which is the opposite of what you’d expect if it were the cause.

Vaccines keep proving their worth in everyday life here too: the hepatitis B shot in the EPI schedule is one reason fewer children now grow up carrying that virus, as our piece on hepatitis B and C in Pakistan explains.

Autism is now understood to be strongly shaped by genes and by how the brain develops before birth. It is not caused by vaccines. It is not your fault.

Myth: spacing out or skipping MMR is the safe middle path

It feels cautious, but it isn’t safer, because delaying leaves a child unprotected during the ages when measles hits hardest. Measles is one of the most contagious illnesses known, and it can cause pneumonia, brain swelling, deafness and death. Outbreaks followed the drop in vaccination after 1998. Any change to your child’s schedule should be a decision made with your doctor, not alone.

The part that is true: vaccines do have side effects

Honesty matters. After a vaccine, a child may have a sore or red spot where the needle went, a mild fever, crankiness or sleepiness for a day or two. After MMR, a mild rash or fever can appear about a week later. Serious allergic reactions are rare, and vaccinators are trained to handle them, which is why you’re asked to wait a short while after the shot.

Some children also have a brief fit with fever after a vaccine, the same kind of febrile seizure any fever can bring. It is frightening but usually short, and it needs a doctor’s check.

What to do instead

1. Keep the card safe.
2. Follow the national schedule; our guide to bachon ke teeke and the EPI schedule lays out each age.
3. If a dose was missed, don’t restart from zero; ask the vaccinator to catch your child up.
4. Write your worries down and ask them at the visit. A good vaccinator will answer.
5. After the shot, wait at the centre for about 15 minutes, then offer extra feeds and cuddles at home.
6. If you notice changes in speech, eye contact or play at any age, ask for a developmental check. Early support helps, whatever the cause.

Vaccines and autism: what parents ask