Many parents have opted not to let their kids get the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, causing the vaccination rates to lag. Their decision could be responsible for the measles outbreak that hit Columbus, Ohio, late last year.

许多父母选择不让他们的孩子接种MMR(麻疹、腮腺炎、风疹)疫苗，导致疫苗接种率滞后。他们的决定可能是去年年底俄亥俄州哥伦布市麻疹爆发的原因。

Amid the outbreak, public health officials found that 80 to 85, or majority of the cases, were unvaccinated children. They sought to get to the bottom of the issue, so they interviewed the parents of the unvaccinated kids, and what they found was shocking.

在麻疹爆发期间，公共卫生官员发现，80%至85%，或者说是大多数病例，是未接种疫苗的儿童。他们为了弄清问题的真相，采访了未接种疫苗的孩子的父母，结果令人震惊。

After speaking with the parents, the officials found that most were hesitant to get their kids the vaccine shots out of fear that the immune-boosting formula could lead to autism — a developmental disability affecting the brain.

在与家长们交谈后，官员们发现，大多数人对给孩子注射疫苗犹豫不决，因为他们担心这种增强免疫力的配方，可能会导致自闭症--一种影响大脑的发育障碍。

"What our team heard from many parents is that they weren't necessarily against vaccines, and their children had other age-appropriate vaccines, but they were specifically putting off the MMR vaccine or waiting as long as they could before they had to get it because of fears it could lead to autism," Columbus Public Health director of public affairs & communications Kelli Newman told ABC News.

哥伦布公共卫生部公共事务沟通主任凯利·纽曼在接受美国广播公司采访时说："我们的团队从许多家长那里听到的是，他们并不反对接种疫苗，他们的孩子也接种了其他适龄的疫苗，但他们特别推迟接种MMR疫苗，或者尽可能延期接种，因为他们担心这种疫苗可能导致自闭症。"

The belief that the MMR vaccine could cause autism stemmed from a 1998 study, which allegedly found evidence linking the two. The paper by Andrew Wakefield published in the journal Lancet claimed the vaccine caused a series of events, including intestinal inflammation, entrance into the bloodstream of proteins harmful to the brain and consequent autism development.

MMR疫苗可能导致自闭症的观点源于1998年的一项研究，据称该研究发现了两者之间存在联系的证据。安德鲁·韦克菲尔德在《柳叶刀》杂志上发表的论文声称，这种疫苗会引起一系列事件，包括肠道炎症、对大脑有害的蛋白质进入血液以及随后的自闭症发展。

However, health experts already discredited the study, which got retracted from the journal. But in 2002, Wakefield and his colleagues published another paper examining the relationship between the measles virus and autism. They even tested intestinal biopsy samples from children with and without autism. They found that 75 of 91 children with autism had the measles virus in their intestines compared with only 5 of 70 children without autism.

然而，健康专家已经对该研究提出质疑，该研究已从杂志上撤回。但在2002年，韦克菲尔德和他的同事发表了另一篇论文，研究麻疹病毒和自闭症之间的关系。他们甚至分别提取了自闭症和非自闭症儿童的肠道活检样本。结果发现91名自闭症儿童中有75人肠道内有麻疹病毒，而70名非自闭症儿童中只有5人肠道内有麻疹病毒。

While the findings may seem alarming, experts pointed out the flaws and limitations in both studies. The first study was deemed fraudulent for misrepresenting data, while the other paper failed to report whether the virus found in the biopsy samples was natural measles virus or vaccine virus, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

虽然这一发现似乎令人担忧，但专家们指出了这两项研究的缺陷和局限性。根据费城儿童医院的说法，第一项研究因歪曲数据而被视为欺诈，而另一篇论文未能报告活检样本中发现的病毒是天然麻疹病毒还是疫苗病毒。

Wakefield eventually lost his medical license following the controversial papers, but the damage was already done. Numerous measles outbreaks have popped up in the U.K. and the U.S. over the last two decades due to the fear of parents that the vaccine could lead to autism.

在这些有争议的论文发表后，韦克菲尔德最终被吊销了行医执照，但伤害已经造成了。过去二十年来，由于父母担心疫苗可能导致自闭症，英美爆发了多次麻疹疫情。