PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: May 31, 2006

Contact: Rita Shreffler, NAA (Nixa, MO) 417-818-9030 Wendy Fournier, NAA (Portsmouth, RI) 401-632-7523

WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY RESEARCH REPLICATES WAKEFIELD’S MMR FINDINGS

NEW EVIDENCE SUPPORTS LINK BETWEEN VACCINE MEASLES STRAIN AND AUTISM

Nixa, MO – This week new research funded in part by NAA and its members will be presented in Montreal showing that the vaccine strain of the measles virus is present in the guts of autistic children. The new findings replicate the initial findings of Dr. Andrew Wakefield.

Dr. Stephen Walker, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, studied children with regressive autism and bowel disease. "Of the handful of results we have in so far, all are vaccine strain," he said of the type of measles present in the intestines of 87% of the autistic children studied.

The study’s conclusions are welcomed by many parents. “Gut anomalies are very real in our children,” says Ann Brasher of the National Autism Association. “We’re thankful that Dr. Walker has replicated Dr. Wakefield’s research and are hopeful these new findings will lead to more effective treatments, and broadened awareness.”

Families and friends across the globe helped The National Autism Association and other organizations fund portions of the study. “Research like this is so desperately needed,” says Claire Bothwell of the National Autism Association. “The more we know about what’s happened to our children, the better equipped we are to help them.”

For more information about autism, visit www.nationalautism.org.

Think Autism. Think Cure.