http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42102-2002Feb7.html
New
Measles Cases in Britain Add to Concern Over Vaccine
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By T.R. Reid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 8, 2002; Page A22
Britain's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, warned today that the
country faced a resurgence of the three childhood diseases, and Prime Minister
Tony Blair accused the media of "totally irresponsible
scaremongering" about the vaccine.
But parents continued to express doubt, and the vaccination rate in some
cities was falling sharply, the National Health Service said. Some Britons are
having their children vaccinated separately for each of the diseases, a method
they believe is safer but that the government calls less effective.
"I know what the government says," said Nuala Garvey, 32, who paid
for the separate shots for her toddler at London's Portland Clinic. "And I
know the science is unsettled. But I have my own feelings, and that should be
respected."
The Health Ministry reported 268 cases of measles in the first five weeks of
the year, compared to 259 in the same period last year, before the scare. The
12 new cases this week were in addition to the 268.
The public fears stem from research published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, a
physician at London's Royal Free Hospital, who purported to find a connection
between autism, inflammatory bowel disease and inoculation with MMR vaccine in
12 children.
Autism often manifests itself in the second year of life, which is when the
first MMR shot is given. Epidemiological studies of British and Scandinavian
children have found no causal relationship between MMR immunization and autism,
however, and most experts believe the apparent one is a coincidence.
Public health officials here warn that the risk of skipping the vaccination
is far higher than any complications the shot might cause.
But Britons tend to distrust their government on public health questions --
an attitude that traces back to the "mad cow" disease scare of the
1980s and '90s. As a result, the country is regularly swept by waves of fear
about various forms of modern technology, including genetically modified corn,
hormone-fed pork and cellular phones that are alleged to cause brain disease.
Blair has warned that this national habit can be dangerous, because it
suggests "a loss of faith in science" among the British public.
In recent weeks, newspapers have turned the MMR "Jab Scare" into a
major news story. The story has a strong political edge, with conservative
newspapers targeting Blair and his wife, Cherie, because they refuse to
disclose whether their 20-month-old son Leo has had the shot. The Blairs say
their child's health care is a private matter.
"Do Cherie and Tony Blair know something that the rest of us have not
been told?" wrote Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts. "Every day the
Blairs stay quiet, our suspicion increases."
With the controversy ballooning and more parents rejecting the shots, Blair
has hinted strongly in recent days that Leo was inoculated. It is "deeply
offensive," he has said, to suggest he would recommend one course for
other parents and follow a different one with his own child.
The vaccine has been used for two decades in the United States and is
required before starting school in many states. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention's National Immunization Survey for 2000 reported that 91 percent
of U.S. children had the shot. The World Health Organization says 500 million
shots are given each year, in 90 countries.
Britain, too, has offered the shot for years, usually between 12 and 15
months of age, followed by a booster shot. Both are provided free by the
government-funded National Health Service.
Through most of the 1990s, vaccination rates for the target age group
exceeded 90 percent. But this year, large numbers of parents, particularly in
London's wealthier neighborhoods, have refused the shot. In some London
districts, the vaccination rate is below 50 percent, prompting official
warnings of a large-scale measles outbreak or epidemic.
Some countries have banned the separate vaccines that are growing in
popularity in Britain, and other countries recommend against them, on grounds
that parents might skip one or more shots and leave children exposed to disease.
But thousands of parents are lining up at private clinics for the separate
shots, which cost about $240 for the full course.
"New Alert on MMR Jab," read the banner front-page headline in
Wednesday's Daily Mail, over a story about a new study by Irish scientist John
O'Leary that found fragments of measles virus in the intestines of children
with autism and bowel disease.
But the same paper reported that O'Leary's study did not consider whether
the children studied had been given the MMR vaccine, and that O'Leary had
warned that "no conclusions should be drawn" from his report about
the effects of MMR.
Staff writer David Brown in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2002
The Washington Post Company
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