The man whose research first raised concern over
                                        the vaccine's safety is winning support. Lorraine
                                        Fraser reports from an influential Congressional
                                        hearing.

                                        Scientists in America have reported the first independent
                                        corroboration of the research findings of Dr Andrew
                                        Wakefield, the specialist who has questioned the safety of
                                        the childhood MMR vaccine.

                                        Dr Arthur Krigsman, from New York University School of
                                        Medicine, has observed serious intestinal inflammation in
                                        autistic children identical to that described by the
                                        controversial British doctor and his colleagues in a
                                        research paper four years ago.

                                        Dr Krigsman's discovery is significant because it
                                        independently supports Dr Wakefield's conclusion that a
                                        previously unidentified and devastating combination of
                                        bowel and brain disease is afflicting young children - a
                                        claim that the Department of Health has dismissed as
                                        "bad science".

                                        Dr Wakefield has seen nearly 200 previously normal
                                        youngsters who apparently developed the combined
                                        behaviour and digestive problems after receiving the
                                        three-in-one measles, mumps and rubella jab - a
                                        vaccination given routinely to babies and pre-school
                                        children in Britain and the United States.

                                        Pathologists at Trinity College, Dublin, have since
                                        identified measles virus in bowel tissue samples from 75
                                        of these children and, as reported in The Telegraph last
                                        week, now claim to have evidence that the virus comes
                                        from MMR.

                                        The Department of Health refuses to accept that such
                                        results cast doubt on MMR's safety. A principal criticism
                                        levelled at Dr Wakefield and his colleagues is that no part
                                        of their research has been replicated by scientists
                                        elsewhere.

                                        Last Wednesday, however, Dr Krigsman reported that he
                                        had seen the same pattern of illness in 43 American
                                        children.

                                        At a hearing of the Government Reform Committee of the
                                        United States Congress on the safety of MMR and other
                                        vaccines, he said that - like the British children - his
                                        patients had all inexplicably deteriorated, losing language
                                        and other skills, at around 12 to 18 months of age.

                                        All the children had a definite diagnosis of autism and had
                                        come to him because they had symptoms of serious
                                        digestive problems, such as pain, constipation and
                                        diarrhoea, for which no explanation could be found.

                                        "Our findings, which are independent of Dr Wakefield's
                                        findings, completely support his explanation and his
                                        observations of the abnormalities in the bowels of these
                                        children," he said.

                                        The intestines of the children were "not normal", he
                                        added. One 13-year-old autistic boy, who had become so
                                        violent that his parents had wanted to institutionalise him,
                                        had the "worst case" of inflammation of the colon the
                                        doctor had ever seen through a fibre-optic scope.

                                        Dr Krigsman, an experienced consultant paediatric
                                        gastroenterologist and an assistant professor at the
                                        university, told the committee that he did not know
                                        whether his patients' illnesses were linked to MMR.
                                        However, he now plans to have the biopsies he took
                                        during the examinations tested independently to check for
                                        evidence of measles virus infection.

                                        The results will be awaited anxiously by parents and
                                        public health officials in Britain, where the debate over the
                                        safety of MMR began with the report from Dr Wakefield
                                        and other doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in north
                                        London in 1998.

                                        Dr Krigsman's research was among presentations
                                        described as "significant findings" by Dan Burton, an
                                        Indiana congressman chairing the Congressional
                                        committee.

                                        Doctors in Britain and America are recognising more
                                        autistic children than ever. The US National Institute of
                                        Health estimates that one American child in 250 is
                                        affected, compared with one in 10,000 a decade ago. A
                                        recent survey by the National Autistic Society in England
                                        suggested that one in 86 primary school pupils may have
                                        the condition.

                                        Health officials in both countries insist, however, that
                                        there is no evidence to link this apparent increase with
                                        the use of MMR or any other vaccine, and say there is no
                                        reason for parents to worry. In Britain, the Department of
                                        Health has rejected calls to allow single measles vaccines
                                        on the NHS as an alternative, claiming that numerous
                                        statistical studies have concluded that MMR is safe.

                                        The Congressional committee heard evidence from other
                                        specialists suggesting that MMR and the mercury-based
                                        preservative, Thimerosal, may both harm susceptible
                                        children, possibly by altering their immune system.
                                        Thimerosal is not used in MMR, but is contained in other
                                        childhood jabs such as DTP - the diphtheria, tetanus and
                                        whooping-cough vaccine.

                                        Dr Jeff Bradstreet, the medical director of the
                                        International Child Development Resource Centre in
                                        Florida, disclosed that tests on his eight-year-old autistic
                                        son Matthew - who received vaccines containing mercury
                                        and the MMR jab - have found particles of measles virus
                                        in the fluid that bathes his brain and spine as well as in his
                                        intestines.

                                        Two other boys with autism who, like Matthew, have
                                        recently started to suffer seizures, also have measles
                                        virus in their cerebrospinal fluid.

                                        While the significance of this is not yet clear, Dr
                                        Bradstreet said he was broadening his research in this
                                        area.