Routine childhood vaccinations do not increase the risk of developing diabetes, according to a study of more than 700,000 Danish children. The study, led by Anders Hviid of the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, looked at all Danish children born from 1990 through 2000 and found that diabetes rates were not higher regardless of what types of vaccines were administered.

"The study will, one hopes, be the last one that is necessary to disprove an association between immunization and diabetes," said Dr. Lynne Levitsky of Massachusetts General Hospital.

In an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, where the study appears, Levitsky said researchers "should now move on to the most important tasks" of finding what actually causes the blood sugar disease and, perhaps, a way to prevent it.

In addition, the study found siblings of children who had diabetes -- and were therefore more likely to develop the condition themselves -- were not more likely to become diabetics if they were vaccinated.

The Hviid team also looked to see if the vaccinations increased the risk of diabetes two, three or four years later in life. They found it did not.

The fact that doctors are doing a better job of getting children immunized against a dozen often-serious diseases had prompted speculation vaccines might contribute to the growing incidence of childhood diabetes.

But there is already evidence from previous studies that a yet-to-be-discovered environmental factor makes the body stop producing the insulin it needs to process blood sugar.

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