The MMR vaccine is given at age 12-15 months. When a child develops autism, his parents describe the disease as if the child grows normally until he reaches an age where a degenerative process begins. This problem usually occurs around age 2. Although the parents claim that the child was growing normally, many researchers do not believe that the child was actually growing normally until the age of 1-2 years, but some children go through a degenerative process and this usually happens after the administration of the MMR vaccine . The question is: does MMR have a real relationship with the development of autism or is it just a coincidence? Dr Andrew Wakefield had written an article in the journal Lancet in 1998 in which he suggested that the MMR vaccine causes autism. In his research, he found that the MMR vaccine is responsible for intestinal inflammation leading to the translocation of non-permeable peptides into the bloodstream. (American Academy of Pediatrics) This in turn transports them to the brain causing the root of autism spectrum disorder to form. His research was called weak by pharmaceutical companies, governments and media companies and was later discredited, earning him a reputation as a fraud. His article has since sparked a decades-long discussion about whether the MMR vaccine gave rise to autism spectrum disorder. This has led many parents to withdraw their children from vaccination, increasing measles infections. Many studies and research projects have been conducted to find the correlation between MMR and autism. Patients with autism were found to harbor a greater number of measles antibodies when a study was conducted on several patients with autism. This study was published in a researchers' medical journal and was... the focus of the article... also worth mentioning is that many studies around the world have concluded that the MMR vaccine is not a definite cause of ASD. Has Dr. Wakefield's research uncovered anything that could harm the medical industry? Drug manufacturers have been known to hide damaging evidence from the public eye to protect their business. Aside from the decades-long debate about the link between MMR and ASD, there are still numerous studies and experiments conducted that suggest that MMR vaccines are a potential cause of autism. Quoted text from Works dated May 5, 2008, email from US HRSA to Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News National Immunization Program Director in a letter to the Chief Medical Officer of the United Kingdom dated February 15, 2002. American Academy of Pediatrics, . NP Network. March 7 2014.