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A 1998 scientific study linking autism to childhood vaccines is being called an 'elaborate fraud'.

An investigation published in the British Medical Journal accuses the author of the study, Dr. Andrew Wakefield of misrepresenting or altering the medical histories of the 12 patients the study was based on.

"It's been devastating becacuse he and a click of lawyers and anti vaccine activists have been able to spread anxiety, export it from the united kingdom, bring it to the united states, as a result, we're now seeing parents are anxious about vaccination" said Investigative Journalist Brian Deer.

But wakefield is standing by his study. "he is a hit man, he has been brought in to take me down because they are very concerned about the adverse reactions to vaccines that are occurring in children." said Dr Andrew Wakefield.

An autism medical expert says he's long had questions about the study: "We keep trying to convince parents that the most important thing they can do to protect children is to have them immunized " said Roy Sanders, Medical Director, Marcus Autism Center.

Last year, the British Medical Journal that originally published Wakefield's study, 'The Lancet', retracted it.

Wakefield, who is attending a vaccine conference in Jamaica, says despite being stripped of his medical license in Britain, he will continue his work.

"I'm not going to go away, these children are real, the experts that are here at this meeting know these children are real they're growing in number."said Wakefield.

 Wakefield's research panicked many parents. Medical experts say measles cases in Britain and the US went up after vaccination rates dropped.

In 2009, a U.S. vaccine court ruled that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine does not cause autism.

We should note the BMJ articles are investigative journalism, not results of a clinical study.