Children at birthday party paid by 'MMR row' doctor for their blood

The General Medical Council (GMC) in Britain has heard that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who is facing allegations of serious professional misconduct with regard to research on the triple measles-mumps-rubella MMR vaccine, paid children £5 to take their blood samples at his son's birthday party.

Dr. Wakefield, age 50, who now lives and works in Texas in the U.S., is appearing before the GMC over claims he is unfit to practice.

The GMC Panel is set to hear a catalogue of damning disciplinary charges against Dr. Wakefield in a hearing which has captured worldwide interest and which is expected to last several months.

Dr. Wakefield is charged alongside professors John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch.

The trio deny serious professional misconduct involving a study published in The Lancet medical journal in February 1998 suggesting there could be a link between the triple jab, which is used throughout the world, and bowel disease and autism.

The study caused a major controversy but was soon discredited, and 10 of the study's 13 authors have since renounced its conclusions.

The Lancet too has regretted publishing the study, criticizing the authors for not revealing what it characterized as a "fatal conflict of interest."

The GMC allege that Dr. Andrew Wakefield conducted operations on children including colonoscopies and lumbar punctures which were arguably unnecessary and showed "callous disregard for the distress and pain" the children might suffer as a result of his actions.

Apparently the Legal Aid Board had granted him £50,000 for research to support legal action by parents who believed their children were harmed by MMR.

The money was paid into an account held by trustees at the Royal Free for the purposes of Dr. Wakefield's research, so that five children and their families could stay in hospital during tests and for MRI scans for each child.

However those costs would have been met by the NHS and Wakefield has been accused of using the money "for purposes other than those for which he said it was needed", which was both "dishonest" and "misleading".

The study triggered a furore and led to falling numbers of parents immunising their children and also initiated a row over whether the then prime minister Tony Blair had vaccinated his young son.

The allegations centre around investigations the doctors conducted for their study on 12 youngsters with bowel disorders carried out between 1996 and 1998 when all three were employed at the Royal Free Hospital's medical school in London, with honorary clinical contracts at the Royal Free Hospital.

It is claimed Dr. Wakefield joked about taking the blood while giving a presentation at the Mind Institute in California and said he intended to do it again.

The 46 allegations Dr. Wakefield is accused of include one of allowing a patient - known as Child 10 - to be given an experimental drug, known as "Transfer Factor", with the view to it becoming a measles vaccine.

Dr. Wakefield has admitted being involved in proposals in 1998 to set up a company - Immunospecifics Biotechnologies Ltd - to manufacture the drug, with the intention that the father of Child 10 become its managing director.

He has also admitted suggesting that the equity in the company would be split between himself, as its research director, the father and other parties, but has denied administering the drug for experimental reasons, without the approval of the ethics committee approval at the Royal Free, of not having the appropriate qualifications, and also of failing to record the dose or inform Child 10's family doctor.

Numerous studies have concluded that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism or bowel disease, and the vast majority of the medical establishment supports the vaccine's use saying it is one of the safest, best-studied vaccines.

Experts warn that the MMR controversy has led many parents to underestimate the dangers of the diseases; for the first time in more than a decade, a 13-year-old boy died in April from measles and the number of measles cases has surged as the proportion of vaccinated children in Britain fell below 80 percent.