Jun 29 2003
 

Doctors leaders have rejected the idea of compulsory immunisation for children in the UK, according to a new report.

The British Medical Association has published a report on childhood immunisation on the eve of its annual conference.

It calls on doctors and health workers to stress to parents that vaccination is the safest and most effective way to protect children from infectious disease.

They should therefore be encouraged to choose immunisation for their children.

However the BMA said it did not support the idea of compulsory vaccinations.

BMA Chairman Dr Ian Bogle said: "We have looked carefully at the issue of compulsory vaccination and it is true that some countries do operate immunisation programmes where there is some degree of compulsion.

"However the BMA does not think this would be right for the United Kingdom.

"The doctor-patient relationship is based on trust, choice and openness and we think introducing compulsory vaccination may be harmful to this."

The report also looked at the issue of whether parents should have a choice of vaccine, for example single doses instead of the triple MMR jab.

Parents first became worried about MMR after a paper in 1999 speculated about a possible link between the jab and autism and bowel disease. The report pointed out that the paper did not prove any link and only one of the 13 authors suggested that MMR should be given as separate injections one year apart.