AFTER A controversial study caused British parents to abandon the MMR vaccine, leading to a resurgence in measles, the medical journal which published it, has retracted the flawed study, citing dishonest and unethical means for gathering the study data.

The prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet has retracted a study which linked the MMR vaccine, commonly known as the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to Autism and Bowel disease. It had published the study in 1998.

The study has been retracted a week after the researcher in this case, Andrew Wakefield was ruled as dishonest and unethical in his data gathering by the General Medical Council. The GMC has also stripped Andrew Wakefield and two of his collegues of their right to practice medicine in Britain.

Andrew Wakefield had reportedly based the study on blood samples he had taken from children at his son's birthday party, giving them each about $8 for it.

The study published in The Lancet had such an impact that parents had abandoned getting their children the MMR vaccine, though later studies could not prove a link between the vaccine and Autism. This led to a large onslaught of measles. Even more disparaging was the fact that 10 of the 13 co-authors for the study had renounced its conclusions, but the doubts it had created about the MMR vaccine had persisted.

Lancet editors retracted the statement. One of them said, "It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false. I feel I was deceived."