Üsküdar University NP Feneryolu Medical Center Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Specialist Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başak Ayık drew attention to the unfounded claims that vaccines cause autism and emphasized the importance of vaccination.
Experts point to the importance of vaccination, stating that children face the danger of infectious diseases with fatal consequences due to false and baseless claims that vaccines cause autism. "Vaccines do not cause autism," experts say, pointing out that not vaccinating children is a very serious child neglect.
Üsküdar University NP Feneryolu Medical Center Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Specialist Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başak Ayık drew attention to the unfounded claims that vaccines cause autism and emphasized the importance of vaccination.
What is autism?
Defining autism as "a medical condition that manifests itself with symptoms in young children, usually before the age of 3", Asst. Assoc. Prof. Başak Ayık said, "Autism sometimes continues throughout life, sometimes it improves or progresses with mild symptoms after the necessary interventions are applied on time and by professionals. The most basic feature is social - social communication, that is, problems in the field of communication with people."
Pay attention to these symptoms in autism!
Assist. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başak Ayık listed the most common symptoms of autism as follows:
- "Not making eye contact,
- Talking late or not chatting with people even though they know how to talk,
- The desire to spend time alone instead of interacting with people,
- Some repetitive movements (such as spinning, rocking, tiptoeing, wheel spinning, flapping wings),
- Sensory symptoms such as being disturbed by loud noises, choosing food."
The brain with autism also works differently
Stating that autism was first identified in the world in 1943 and since then, very valuable studies have been carried out in the scientific community to reveal the causes of autism, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başak Ayık said, "As a result of these studies, more than 1000 genes have been identified as associated with autism. So there is a genetic basis. Brain studies have revealed that the brains of individuals with autism are both structurally and functionally different from normally developing individuals. Brain regions especially related to social communication have a different structure than expected. Again, communication between cells in the brain is different from normal. The functioning of the brain with autism is also different from normal. Apart from these, some reasons including advanced maternal and paternal age, which are defined as environmental factors, increase the risk of autism."
Vaccines do not cause autism...
"As noticed, I did not mention vaccines among the causes of autism," said Asst. Assoc. Prof. Başak Ayık, "because there is no such evidence in the scientific community. I would like to summarize and emphasize that vaccines do not cause autism."
This claim was refuted by scientific studies
Stating that this misperception between autism and vaccination emerged as a result of an article published in the UK and later removed from publication, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başak Ayık noted that it was later proven in many studies that there was no such relationship and said the following:
"In 1998, a gastroenterology specialist in the UK published an article in a journal stating that autism symptoms started in 8 children one month after measles-mumps-rubella-mumps (MMR) vaccination. After this article, 20 epidemiologic, large-scale studies conducted by different researchers in various countries failed to find any data supporting a link between MMR vaccines and thiomersal - the mercury component used in vaccines - and autism. The proposed mechanism was shown to have no scientific basis. In the following years, it was discovered that the physician who claimed that vaccines caused autism was in a financial relationship with lawyers suing vaccine manufacturers, and that some of his research was financed by lawyers involved in these lawsuits. In the UK, in January 2010, the General Medical Council (GMC) found this physician guilty of fraud and repeatedly violating the basic principles of research medicine. In February 2010, the journal retracted the article that had caused all this confusion. In May 2010, the GPC revoked his license to practice medicine.( Pivetti M. et al. 2020 vaccines and autism International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 15(1), 1-15.) "
Not getting vaccinated against infectious diseases is a serious omission
Stating that the basis of this evidence-free and groundless misinformation about vaccines is not known by most people, Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başak Ayık said, "Years later, both in our country and in the world, as a result of the false and groundless belief that vaccines cause autism, we encounter families who do not even want to get vaccinated against infectious diseases with fatal consequences. It is the basic duty of parents to meet the care needs of a child. And not vaccinating a dependent child is a serious form of child neglect. When it comes to infectious diseases, the decisions taken have social, not individual, impacts. In our country, where there are social migrations due to the wars in our world, the re-emergence of some infectious diseases that were previously erased from our society is a result of this."
