Up to 40,000 children may have to be revaccinated with the combined MMR jab
after it emerged yesterday that two clinics giving separate measles, mumps and
rubella immunisations did not follow correct procedures.
The Department of Health has sent an urgent message to all family doctors in
Britain saying all children given separate jabs at the clinics over a 10-year
period were at risk of the diseases and should be reimmunised with the MMR jab.
Dr David Salisbury, head of the department's immunisation and communicable
disease team, said the clinics involved were Elstree Aerodrome in Hertfordshire
and Hillsborough Arena in Sheffield. Both are now closed.
He said the clinics had not followed the correct procedures recommended by
the manufacturer for "making up and administering the vaccines". Vaccines were
made up in advance which was "not normal practice and might have led to the
vaccines being less effective than normal".
Another concern was that the vaccines could have been contaminated because of
the way they were prepared. "This could have increased the risk of children
suffering bacterial infections from the immunisation or greater side-effects to
the vaccines," Dr Salisbury said.
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