Contents

• COMMITTEE TO STUDY NEW RESEARCH ON VACCINES
• Acknowledgments
• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• INTRODUCTION
• HISTORY AND BACKGROUND
  • Review of an Epidemiologic Study of Neurologic Illness and Vaccination in Children
  • Vaccine Safety Committee
• THE CHARGE TO THE 1993 COMMITTEE TO STUDY NEW RESEARCH ON VACCINES
• METHODS
• EVIDENCE BEARING ON CAUSALITY
  • The National Childhood Encephalopathy Study—1981
  • The National Childhood Encephalopathy Study—1993
• DISCUSSION
• CONCLUSION
  • General Considerations
  • Causality Argument
• REFERENCES

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

The Institute of Medicine was chartered in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to enlist distinguished members of the appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. In this the Institute acts under the Academy's 1863 congressional charter responsibility to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is President of the Institute of Medicine.