A British medical journal announced Tuesday that it is changing course and retracting a well-known study that linked autism to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

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The autism study was officially published in 1998, and it soon became well known, causing many parents to abandon the vaccine. That led to a resurgence in measles in Britain, and outbreaks which continue to pop up each year.

Ten of the 14 authors of the study have already renounced it, and the magazine itself has previously said it should never have published the research.

According to the General Medical Council, the lead researcher admitted to taking blood samples from 12 children at his son's birthday party to conduct the study.

And according to editors of The Lancet, the findings of the study were never approved by an ethics committee.

Many doctors around the world are praising the decision, including Dr. Walter Molofsky, chief of pediatric neurology at Beth Israel Medical Center.

“It's a tremendous benefit for the vaccine program, which is one of the major successes in modern medicine,” says Molofsky. “And anything that puts that into question, especially when it is spurious, does a disservice to children all over the world and we've actually seen that because the incidence of vaccine-related diseases has increased in areas where the vaccine rates have gone down.”

The study's lead investigator still stands by his research and is defending his practices.

Some in the autism field still say while his research may be questionable, they do not believe it's all wrong.

“My feeling is it doesn't invalidate the concept, the fact that he did not follow the protocol he said he did,” says pediatrician Dr. Morton Teich. “I agree with the retraction, but I've had patients where a few days after they got the measles, mumps vaccine, there was a dramatic change in their behavior.”

But no other study has backed up a link between vaccines and autism. And doctors like Molofsky are hoping that not only will the Lancet retraction alleviate vaccine fears, it will also serve as a reminder that research needs to continue to find more answers for the high number of children now diagnosed with autism.

Currently one in 91 children has the disorder.

“I think it will help serve the families who are very frustrated with the fact that they are raising children who are on the autistic spectrum syndrome,” Molofsky says. “I think most of us in the medical community have long realized even before this study was published that the role of vaccines is probably non-existent in the evolution and development of autistic spectrum syndrome. And I think that will actually help focus on other genetic and other potential causes of autism, so we can actually realistically help these children.”