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Childhood diseases once mostly eradicated are making a comeback. And children are dying.

The doctor who launched the modern anti-vaccine movement acted "dishonestly and irresponsibly," Britain's General Medical Council has ruled. But fear not. Dr. Andrew Wakefield is still a hero to his many acolytes. And others, with curious credentials, fight on to terrify parents into not getting their children inoculated.

In the first part of a special BMJ series, Brian Deer exposes the bogus data behind claims that launched a worldwide scare over the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, and reveals how the appearance of a link with autism was manufactured at a London medical school

The statistics weren’t comforting: In March 2012 the Centers for Disease Control estimated that one in 88 American children is somewhere on the autistic spectrum. We’re still not sure exactly what causes autism, and we’re not sure why the number of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has increased since the early 1990s. According to the National Academy of Sciences, it could be because people are more aware of autism spectrum disorders today; because pediatricians are doing more screening; and because there have been changes in how autism disorders have been defined and diagnosed. In other words, more children with milder symptoms are being identified as somewhere “on the spectrum,” where they wouldn’t have been in years before. But as the Dimicks discovered—like many other parents before them—plenty of doctors claimed to have all the answers. The road parents must navigate is made more perilous by medical professionals willing to prescribe all sorts of treatments, from hyperbaric oxygen chambers and chelation therapy (which removes heavy metals with chemicals) to shelves full of dietary supplements and other alternative remedies they say can treat, even cure, autism. At best these treatments remain unapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; at worst they are downright dangerous. To compound the problem, a host of celebrities act as unpaid marketing reps for these unproven treatments, touting a pervasive (but incorrect) belief that autism is caused by childhood vaccines. This misinformation campaign has led, in the last few years, to a decline in the number of children receiving lifesaving inoculations. And Texas has become a center for alternative autism treatment and the anti-vaccine crusade.

A newly updated strategic plan guiding federally-funded autism research places new emphasis on adults with the disorder, while leaving the door open for further research on vaccines. The 2010 strategic plan released this week by the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, or IACC, provides a blueprint for the type of autism research that will likely be approved for federal funding during the course of the year. The IACC is an advisory committee established by the Combating Autism Act of 2006, which is comprised of government officials and members of the autism community.

There is no question that the incidence and prevalence of autism are on the rise. Starting in the early 1990s and continuing to today, there has been a steady rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism. Prior to 1990 the estimates of autism prevalence were about 3 per 10,000. The most recent estimates from the CDC and elsewhere now have the number at about 100 per 10,000, or 1%. The burning question is – why are the rates increasing steadily? There are those, particularly in the anti-vaccine community, who conclude that the increase in prevalence is a real biological effect – an epidemic – and is evidence for an environmental cause (which they believe is vaccines, even though the scientific evidence does not support this position). However, the evidence strongly suggests that the rising prevalence of autism is largely an artifact of broadening the diagnosis and increased surveillance.

The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research.

In his new book “The Panic Virus,” out today, journalist Seth Mnookin digs into the claims about the link between childhood vaccines and autism — and why people believe them. (Here’s a WSJ review of the book.)

BMJ Editor Fiona Godlee presented a discussion of the stunning investigation she published earlier this year that revealed the MMR scare was based not on bad science but on deliberate fraud.  The three-part series was produced by journalist Brian Deer, who spent seven years investigating Andrew Wakefield’s infamous study linking the MMR vaccine with autism, discovering Wakefield had been paid by a lawyer to influence his results and had blatantly manipulated the study data. 

Flu is most deadly for children with neurologic problems and disorders, an analysis of swine flu fatalities finds. The results come from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers who looked at childhood fatalities during the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009, when there were five times the usual number of deaths. In all, 43 percent of the deaths occurred in children who had neurologic diseases, such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy, or developmental disorders.

A series of changes sparked by the health care law passed earlier this year will begin to take hold later this week, increasing access for individuals with disabilities. Starting Thursday, insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Lifetime coverage limits will also largely disappear. And, it will become harder for insurance companies to cancel coverage or deny claims. At the same time, insurance plans will be required to include certain preventive services such as vaccinations at no cost. What’s more, kids will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until they turn 26.

SALT LAKE CITY — The polio virus, and its reign of terror in the American psyche, is faded history now. After a vaccine was introduced in the mid-1950s, millions of people sighed, turned the page and moved on. Many polio victims, often struck in childhood, tried to leave the story behind and forget, too.

On the Spectrum Jonathan Mitchell is a writer from Los Angeles. He wrote a novel about his life experience with Asperger's syndrome, an autism-spectrum disorder. Independent producer Tamar Brott met Mitchell in a writing class a few years ago.

Blythe Corbett Autism researcher Blythe Corbett explores the connection between autism and creativity. She addresses the controversies surrounding autism, including the debunked link to vaccinations and the emerging neurodiversity movement among adults, which says that autism isn't worse - just different.

As these latest cases illustrated, there's no doubt that autism and autism spectrum disorders place a heavy burden on many families.  We know that autism and related disorders are conditions that present many special challenges to all families touched by these disorders.  That is why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides services to families with family members with autism spectrum disorder and continues to support research to better understand risk factors and causes of autism spectrum disorders and develop more effective methods of treatment.  

A new study published online in Environmental Health Perspectives shows no correlation between blood mercury levels in 2-5 year old children and autism or developmental delay. This study adds to the growing evidence that environmental exposure to mercury, from any source, is not a risk factor for autism.

the myth that vaccines cause autism has led to ideas. Dangerous ideas, and not because they “challenge” medical orthodoxy. These ideas are dangerous because they have direct consequences for children with autism. These consequences take the form of subjecting children to unscientific treatments that are ineffective at best and harmful at worst, sometimes even life-threatening.

Nearly four-dozen health care professionals have embarked on a campaign to increase the number of southwest Montana children being immunized against disease.

Legendary Women, Inc. was able to speak with two outspoken bloggers and activists about the way people were discussing the measles outbreak, the misinformation of the anti-vaccine movement, and the demonization of the autistic community in the middle. In part one, we spoke with Squidalicious writer and The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism co-founder, Shannon de Roches Rosa. In a few days, we’ll be posting part two of this piece with Sara Kurchak.