Vaccine snub will risk lives

May 21 2004

By Alison Dargie, The Journal

A North health chief last night revealed that more children are receiving the controversial MMR vaccine - but claimed the numbers were still so low that lives could be put at risk. Many parents have been put off giving their children the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination due to concerns over possible links with autism and bowel disease. Instead, many choose to give their children separate vaccinations for each disease. But health experts say these single jabs are less effective because of the delay and the risk of the course not being completed - and warn levels of MMR uptake are so low they are creating a danger of epidemics. Dr John Woodhouse, the North-East's Deputy Regional Director of Public Health, warned that while vaccination levels in the North-East were now rising again, they are still too low to guard against a potential outbreak. Story continues ADVERTISEMENT He described the MMR vaccine as the "most widely-researched vaccine ever" - adding that he had not hesitated in giving his children, Alison, 13, and George, 10, the jab. He said: "To be sure we are safe from a large outbreak, we need to have coverage of 92pc. At the moment the coverage in the North-East is 84pc, which is a small improvement on last year when it dipped below 80pc. "No vaccine is 100pc effective. There will be a small number of people for whom it will not work and there are a small number of people who cannot be vaccinated because they have other medical problems. "Those people who are not immune act as a reservoir for the disease and so there needs to be a high level of vaccination to prevent it spreading from person to person." Dr Woodhouse said that far from being harmless diseases of childhood, mumps, measles and rubella could have serious and, in some cases, fatal consequences. But his comments were attacked by Paul Shattock, head of the autism research unit at Sunderland University, who said the government had not done enough to allay fears about the MMR. He said: "In my view there is still no convincing evidence that the MMR is not linked to autism. All the Government has done is look at the statistics. "I want them to go back and examine the children where the parents allege damage was caused by the MMR."

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