COUNTY health experts have welcomed a report confirming there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, according to a study of more than 5,000 children.

The Medical Research Council-funded study looked at the vaccination records of 1,294 children diagnosed with autism or other pervasive development disorders between 1987 and 2001 in England and Wales.

These children were then compared with 4,469 others of the same sex and similar age who were registered with the same general practices but did not have autism or PDDs.

The results showed that 78 per cent of the children with autism or a PDD had received MMR jabs while 82 per cent of the control group of children had been given MMR.

According to Dr Liam Smeeth, who headed the team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine that carried out the study, the four per cent difference was not significant.

So far, no medical evidence has been published to back up the claim made in 1998 that there was a link between MMR and autism and bowel disease. And the journal in which it was published admitted that the information was flawed and should not have been published.

A spokesman for South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust said take-up of the vaccine now stands at 78 per cent.

"The PCT welcomes the publication of this report," he said.

However, Mary Dhonau, whose seven-year-old son Peter, became autistic within one month of being given the vaccination, said she is not convinced by the new study.

She argued that many reports into the MMR/autism link are funded by those who have a vested interest in a high uptake of the jabs, such as a the companies which produce the vaccine.

She said she is not opposed to vaccinations but would like to see parents have a choice between the three-in one jabs and single jabs after the family history of a child has been taken into account.

"We still think that the triple jab was the cause of his autism," she said. "We just feel that his little body could not deal with the MMR vaccination and the flu."