Type 1 Diabetes Not Linked to Childhood Immunizations

The development of Type 1 diabetes is not linked with childhood immunization, according to a study published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports. The increased rate of cases of Type 1 diabetes in industrialized nations, which have high rates of childhood immunization, prompted some researchers to consider such a link. In the study, Danish researchers at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen examined the records of immunization and cases of type 1 diabetes for the more than 739,000 children born in Denmark between 1990 and 2000. Participants received vaccines for eight diseases on a schedule similar to that in the United States, Mads Melbye, one of the researchers, said. The study found no more cases of Type 1 diabetes among participants who received the vaccine than among those who did not receive them. In an editorial that accompanied the study, Lynne Levitsky of Harvard Medical School wrote that she hopes the results "will be the last one that is necessary to disprove an association between immunizations and diabetes" (Nano, AP/Las Vegas Sun, 3/31).