Swine flu jab ‘is not linked to autism in youngsters’

PREGNANT women receiving the swine flu vaccine are no more likely to have autistic children, a study has confirmed.

There are signs that growing numbers of women do not want to be vaccinated, with some still believing disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield’s claim the MMR vaccine caused autism.

Now a study following children from birth to around six years old has found those whose mothers were vaccinated during pregnancy are no more likely to develop autism.

The Karolinska Institute in Sweden looked at 39,726 children whose mothers were vaccinated for H1N1 – the swine flu which is included in the annual UK flu vaccine.

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that 1 per cent of those whose mothers were vaccinated had been diagnosed with autism by their sixth birthday.

That was almost exactly the same rate as the 1.1 per cent of children whose mothers were not vaccinated.

Experts fear some women see flu as a mild disease or worry about being vaccinated when pregnant. The Daily Mail has long campaigned to reverse falling rates of immunisation.