'Overwhelming majority' of parents support MMR

Friday, 26 September 2003 7:18 PM

The number of children being given the MMR vaccine is likely to have increased over the last six months, much to the relief of health ministers.

Controversial claims about the safety of the triple jab, which protects children against measles, mumps and rubella, had reduced the take-up of the vaccine.

And statistics published by the Health Protection Agency today showed a 2% drop in the proportion of children receiving the jab between April 2002 and March this year.

But 82% of children under the age of two received the MMR during that period.

Public Health Minister Melanie Johnson commented: "The figures show the overwhelming majority of parents and carers are choosing MMR as the best way to protect their children from these serious diseases."

But she noted that since January this year MMR uptake has remained static.

Ms. Johnson continued by noting that the very latest tracking data from the HPA suggests a 6% rise in uptake levels between March and August this year.

"This research is encouraging. It has in the past proved to be an
accurate indicator of national vaccination trends and suggests that
we are seeing a renewed confidence among parents and carers."

The MMR immunisation programme has been linked to autism and serious bowel disease, but government scientists and the majority of medical practitioners have dismissed the correlation between the vaccine and the increased incidence of autism as coincidental.

Some parents have opted to give their children the individual measles vaccine, which is unlicensed in the UK, which avoids the massive influx of antibodies associated with the triple jab.

Others have shied away from the vaccine altogether, putting their children at risk of the potentially fatal diseases, in the DoH's view.

There were over 300 cases of measles in England and Wales last year - the highest number since the MMR was introduced in 1988.

And an study in the journal 'Science' last month, carried out by the HPA and the University of London, has suggested that measles could become endemic in the UK if vaccination rates do not improve soon.

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