Giving Compass' Take:

• Measles cases have increased around the world but there are still some who fear that vaccines for MMR will cause autism. However, a major study has been published by Danish researchers assuring there is no link between the two. 

• How can funders help to drive productive conversations around vaccination, especially in places where there are more skeptics? 

• Here's how distrust is threatening vaccine programs in Afghanistan. 

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine does not cause autism, according to a major study carried out in an attempt to reassure growing numbers of vaccination-doubters, as measles outbreaks surge.

Doubts about MMR were sown by the gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, who hypothesized in 1998 that it was linked to autism. The symptoms of the condition often begin to manifest at about the time the jab is given, between 12 and 15 months old.

The theory has been discredited and Wakefield was later disbarred from practicing medicine, but there has been an upsurge in doubt about the safety of vaccines, spread on social media and in some countries also linked to anti-establishment populism.

Read the full article on autism and MMR by Sarah Boseley at The Guardian.