Dr. Wakefield and his collages published a paper in the Lancet in 1998, describing twelve children who presented with both GI symptoms and developmental disorders. A follow-up paper confirming this syndrome in sixty children was published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Karoly Horvath at the University of Maryland published a paper describing inflammation in the upper GI tract of these children. Next, there was a series of papers from Dr. Wakefields's group at the Royal Free Hospital in London characterizing the immunological and histological aberrations in the intestine of these children, starting in the colon and then working progressively through the intestine.
In Dr. Wakefield's own words-Autism is a multidisciplinary disease,
requiring a multidisciplinary approach. The child is not defective,
the child is sick.