MMR vaccine and autism research in Montenegro and Serbia

Medical professionals and researchers in Montenegro and Serbia have reaffirmed that there is no causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Initially, pediatrician Nebojša Kavarić, former director of the Podgorica Health Center, addressed parental resistance to vaccination. He characterized the issue as a matter of trust and communication, noting that parents are often exposed to “inaccurate or scientifically unfounded information.” Kavarić supported measures aligned with pediatric science to increase vaccination coverage to protect the wider community.

Subsequently, researchers from the Institute of Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade released a meta-analysis titled ‘Autism and the MMR Vaccine’. The study reviewed 57 epidemiological studies involving 14.7 million children, concluding that neither vaccine components nor the administration of the polyvalent MMR vaccine pose a risk for autism. The researchers noted that morphological brain changes in infants often precede the clinical manifestation of autism and suggested that the increasing prevalence of autism likely has a strong neurobiological and genetic basis. The report also noted that previous theories suggesting a link had led to decreased vaccination rates and subsequent measles outbreaks.