[Vaccines and autism: a myth to debunk?].

Thanks to vaccinations the incidence of many seriously debilitating or life threatening diseases and the resulting infant mortality or disability have been drastically reduced. In populations, who are no more aware of the risk of these infections, the attitude of suspicion and fear towards the vaccinations is expanding and in some cases reaches a worldwide media coverage as was the case for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR). In 1998, a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, and co-authors, published in "Lancet" a study in which he suggested the existence of "a new variant of autism" associated with intestinal inflammation.