A FORMER top US official has admitted researchers were told not to look for links between autistic children and vaccine jabs.

Doctor Bernadine Healy, the ex- head of the US National Institute of Health, said the Government there had not sought out children who might be susceptible to vaccine damage.

Research has shown that up to 38 per cent of autistic kids have a DNA defect which can be triggered by jabs, compared with 0.2pc in the general population.

Dr Healy, who worked for the American equivalent of the British Medical Research Council, dismissed claims by public health officials that there was enough evidence to prove these jabs do not cause autism.

Paul Shattock, of the University of Sunderland Autism Research Unit, said: "Mrs Healy was a major player in US Government healthcare. It is the first time such an eminent medic has come out with such damning comments.

"She states healthcare officials were told not to look for subsets in case they found a causal link between vaccines and autism. This is outrageous.

"It's time the British Government looked at this issue and stopped burying its head in the sand."

The Sunday Sun recently revealed that the US Government conceded a girl with an underlying DNA fault developed autism as a result of her inoculations.

Nine-year-old Hannah Poling of Athens, Georgia, developed autism - a lifelong developmental disability affecting social communication, interaction and imagination - after she received a cocktail of jabs. Experts believe her condition was triggered by the jabs interacting with a DNA defect in her body.

Dr Healy made her comments in an interview with CBS News in the US recently.

She said: "What we are seeing is that, in the bulk of the population vaccines are safe but there may be this susceptible group.

"If you know there is a susceptible group, you can save those children. If you turn your back on the notion there is a susceptible group . . . what can I say?"

She said research was carried out on a random sample of children who had had the vaccination.

Jackie Fletcher, founder of Jabs - a support group for vaccine-damaged children - said: "What Mrs Healy has said is what we have been saying for years.

"We collected 1200 children's cases who were alleged to have been damaged by vaccines and presented this to the Government in 1997. They just chose to ignore them."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Individual cases of 107 children with autism, or bowel disease, whose parents alleged MMR was the cause were reviewed extensively by the Medicines Control Agency.

"The working party concluded their study did not give cause for concern about the safety of the MMR.

"The Department of Health does not plan to conduct and support research into subsets. Given the overwhelming body of evidence that no link exists, this would not be an appropriate use of resources."

CONTROVERSIAL doctor Andrew Wakefield has been involved in research that may renew fears over a link between autism and the child MMR jab.

He was involved in research by a group of US universities in which monkeys were treated with the vaccines given to American children between 1994 and 1999, which contained mercury.

The vaccinated macaques exhibited brain changes, autism-like symptoms and gene changes.

In 1998, Dr Wakefield sparked panic over anMMR jab-autism link when his research, published in The Lancet journal, reported bowel problems in vaccinated children diagnosed with autism and alleged a possible connection with the MMR vaccination.

He was later accused of a conflict of interest in the trials, and The Lancet said it regretted publishing the research.

The new research is awaiting peer review.

The Department of Health said: "Dr Andrew Wakefield has an established track record of being wrong on vaccines, autism and Bell's disease.

"Studies based on his previous theories are clearly going to lack credibility."