Government knows measles single vaccine is effective

By Sarah-Kate Templeton Health Editor and Jenifer Johnston

DESPITE the government's current insistence that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is the only option, in 1988 -- when guidelines were issued -- it stipulated that parents who refused the triple jab should be offered the option of a single measles vaccine.

But in 1997, when the licence for the single vaccines expired due to lack of demand at the time, the only vaccine available to doctors was the combined MMR.

As details of the original advice, contained in the 1988 Department of Health manual on infectious diseases, emerged, an adviser to the South African government confirmed this weekend that the single measles vaccine is just as effective as the combined jab in protecting children against the disease.

Research carried out by Professor Greg Hussey, professor of infectious diseases at Cape Town University and an adviser to the South African health department, shows that the measles single vaccine is as effective as the MMR jab, if not more so. In South Africa only the measles single vaccine is available from the public health system. The combined vaccine can be given privately.

A comparison between two groups of children -- one given the MMR and the other the measles single vaccine -- showed that those who had been given the measles-only jab had greater protection against the disease. The research, published in The South African Medical Journal, showed the single vaccine to have a 100% efficacy rate compared to 74% for the MMR.

Hussey said the higher efficacy rate for the single vaccine was believed to have been because the MMR was not kept cool enough when given privately.

But he insisted that the measles single vaccine was at least as effective as the triple jab at fighting off the disease. 'There shouldn't be any difference in efficacy. In the public health sector in South Africa we have just used monovalent measles vaccines. Coverage is 85% and we do not see much measles at all. '

The South African health service does not vaccinate against mumps and rubella at the moment, but points out that if it could get the triple vaccine for the same price as the measles single vaccine it would probably change. Its priority, however, is ensuring that the population is vaccinated against measles.

Hussey said: 'Our priority is bringing measles under control, and that's what we have done. We haven't had an outbreak of measles for four or five years. We have only had one or two cases in the last year.'

Dr John March, who develops animal vaccines at Edinburgh's Moredun Research Institute, believes the measles single vaccine is more effective than the combined MMR jab. March, whose opinions do not reflect the official view of the institute, said: 'The principal one is the measles and we should make sure everyone gets [that] -- that is the one that really causes damage and is potentially fatal.