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Armed with a new study, some parents say vaccines trigger autism. But is skipping shots the answer? Mike and Lynne Koufakis say their son Jake came into the world a healthy, happy child. Babbling and smiling as a newborn .he seemed to be developing normally. But at 18 months, not long after he received his routine childhood vaccinations, he started to change.
 
"He began slowing down," says Lynne. 45, a stay-at-home mom in Manhasset. N.Y. 'He lost eye contact and began withdrawing. He was a space cadet, out of it."
 
Now 8, Jake Koufakis bus been diagnosed with autism -- the second
child in his family to have the disorder-and Mike and Lynne Koufakis
believe the vaccinations are partly to blame. Their youngest, Jenna, 5, shows no signs of autism, but her frightened parents have stopped vaccinating her
altogether. The Koufakises have joined a growing number of parents who
suspect Thimerosal -- a mercury-based preservative once commonly used in
childhood vaccines -- may be a factor in an apparent explosion in autism
cases in recent years. Experts have long said there is no scientific data
to support such fears, but a study published in June by Columbia University
has re-ignited the debate.
 
The report -- presented to a congressional sub committee Sept. 8-shows Thimerosal triggered autism-like symptoms in a strain of mice genetically susceptible to autoimmune disorders (as are many autistic children). While far from conclusive, activists say the study offers some evidence that outside factors like high mercury levels, not genetics alone may play a part in the rising autism diagnoses. "Parents I know believe there is a connection between vaccines and autism," says Lee Grossman, chairman of the Autism Society of America. "It's shocking to find a lifelong disability at such high levels. If it were cancer, people would be all over that."
 
Commonly used for more than 70 years, Thimerosal has been phased out
of all childhood vaccines since 1999; now it is present only in tiny
amounts in some inoculations. The ingredient remains in most flu shots, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends for children
between 6 and 23 months (see box). That fact has fueled reluctance to
immunize children-to the frustration of doctors. Vaccines prevent potentially devastating illness: says Dr. Gary Freed, professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School who cared for a child who died of complications from measles because he hadn't been immunized. "His parents will never forgive themselves-their child died of a disease that could have bacon prevented." As for the Columbia research, Dr. Alfred Bert who participated in a lengthily Institute of Medicine study that rejected any connection between vaccines and autism, says. 'It's a leap to translate what happened to the mice into the autistic behavior of children."
 
That doesn't matter to parents like Lyn and Tommy Redwood of Tyrone.
Ga. Lyn, 47, a nurse, and Tommy, 46, an ER doctor, were alarmed when their
son Will stopped talking in his second year. After he was diagnosed with
autism Redwood began doing Internet research and had Will's hair samples
tested for mercury. It contained near-toxic amounts of the substance --
nearly five times EPA-sanctioned levies The Redwoods believe Will absorbed
mercury via childhood vaccinations, injections Lyn took while she was
pregnant. And pollution) "I don't know who is responsible." says Lyn, who
launched SafeMinds, a group that promotes the idea that mercury in
vaccines is dangerous. All I know is I have a child who isn't able to isn't able to live up to his potential The devastation felt by families like the Redwoods is perhaps the only thing all parties in the autism debate agree on. The National Institutes of Health says diagnosis have risen front roughly one in 2,500 births in the 1960s to one out of 500 today. Experts cite different causes for the jump, among them a broadened definition of the disease.

"A lot of things that weren't considered autism in the past are now lumped
under that term." says Dr. Thomas Saari, spokesman for the American
Academy of Pediatrics. In Sweden, where Thimerosal was eliminated in 1993 the number of cases continued to rise. "People are desperate for an explanation.
 
They want to understand what happened to their child," says Melinda Wharton, acting deputy director of the National Immunization Program at the CDC. But we have to go with science-not what people feel."