This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Vaccinations revolutionized medicine in the 20th century with the near or total elimination of disabling, life-threatening infections. Yet, despite clear benefits to public health, suspicion of ill effects related to vaccines has risen in recent years. In large part, this fear of vaccination has been fueled by poorly designed, inaccurate, or even fraudulent studies1–3 linking vaccinations to adverse outcomes. While more recent large and well-designed studies have assuaged concerns about vaccines,4 some public mistrust remains. The recent resurgence of measles and resultant public health crisis across the United States, with more than 700 cases in 2019—the greatest number since 1994—highlights this growing distrust.5 Distrust in vaccines is centered primarily on questions of their potential to cause health problems, among them behavioral and autoimmune disease. With this background in mind, it is no surprise, then, that one of the most common queries that patients and families ask physicians dealing with a chronic immune-mediated disorder like multiple sclerosis (MS) is as follows: Did this or any vaccine cause or trigger MS?
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org/N for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the editorial.
See page 386
- © 2019 American Academy of Neurology
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
You May Also be Interested in
Hastening the Diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Dr. Brian Callaghan and Dr. Kellen Quigg
► Watch
Topics Discussed
Alert Me
Recommended articles
A large case-control study on vaccination as risk factor for multiple sclerosis
Seasonal influenza vaccine and Guillain-Barré syndrome
Practice guideline update summary: Vaccine-preventable infections and immunization in multiple sclerosis
Uptake and Attitudes About Immunizations in People With Multiple Sclerosis