A Canadian study which has found no link between autism and MMR vaccinations will hopefully finally close debate on the controversial issue.

Developmental disorders such autism and Asperger syndrome have been on the rise for years and the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccines and thimerosal-containing vaccines (which are approximately 50 percent ethylmercury) have been often proffered as possible causes.

In an effort to finally lay the issue to rest researchers at McGill University Health Centre looked at patterns between the development disorder and vaccinations in 28,000 children.

The team found that autism rates were higher in children given jabs after thimerosal was eliminated from vaccines and after MMR vaccination coverage decreased.

Experts believe there may be an as yet unidentified environmental factor involved and say more research was now needed to explain why autism was more common now that MMR and thimerosal are ruled out.

Research in the 90’s which contested that the MMR jab may be linked autism as the three-in-one vaccine was said to overload the immune system, has since been repeatedly discredited, but the damage has been done and immunisation rates have dropped in recent years.

It has resulted in a resurgence of measles, which has caused the deaths of several young children in Europe.

Thimerosal which was used as a preservative in vaccines, has been gradually phased out of use.

Autism is a neuropsychiatric disorder that impairs a child’s ability to communicate and interact with others.

Rates have been rising across the world and now one in every 250 children is diagnosed as having an autistic spectrum disorder - a developmental disability.

The Canadian team found that even after thimerosal was phased out in Quebec in 1996, the autism rate rose from 59.5 per 10,000 to 82.7 per 10,000, and after MMR take up fell in the late 1990s, the rate rose to 102.5 per 10,000 compared to 40.6 in the late 1980s.

Lead researcher Dr. Eric Fombonne says quite categorically that there is no relationship between the level of exposure to MMR vaccines and thimerosal-containing vaccines and rates of autism.

Dr. Eric Fombonne hopes the study will finally put to rest the pervasive belief linking vaccines with development diseases such as autism.

Dr. Fombonne emphasises that there is no demonstrated autism epidemic and attributes the rise in autism rates to a broader definition of autism and greater awareness of the disorder.