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July 09, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“40,000 Children ‘at Risk’ in MMR Blunder”

Daily Telegraph (UK) (www.portal.telegraph.co.uk) (07/09/03) P. 1; Derbyshire, David

The U.K. Department of Health says that two private clinics in Hertfordshire and Sheffield did not follow correct immunization procedures in administering vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella, and it warns that as many as 40,000 children could be at risk for contracting those diseases.  Health officials are to launch an advertising campaign to get parents who used those clinics to have their children vaccinated with the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine; the clinics were offering single vaccines to parents who were worried about the safety of the combined vaccine.  The clinics were closed after it was discovered that they were not registered with the National Care Standards Commission.  One of the clinics did not prepare the vaccines properly, and the Health Department also fears that the vaccines could have been contaminated with bacteria.  “The present estimate is that this could involve up to 40,000 immunizations going back over a 10-year period,” says department head Dr. David Salisbury.