http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=119241
Public health warning on TV to push MMR
Vaccine » Chief Medical Officer to broadcast
personal appeal amid fear of epidemic due to low take-up of triple jab
By Colin Brown, Political Editor
10 February 2002
Internal links
Cases of
mumps rise by 800 per cent in five years
Eye
witness: Dr Elliman and a bad outbreak of mistrust in Nappy Valley
Raising
Jamie hasn't been easy. But I wouldn't have him any other way
Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief
Medical Officer, is considering the extraordinary step of broadcasting a
personal appeal on the MMR vaccine, stressing the need for its take-up to avoid
the threat of a measles epidemic.
It would be the first time since the Aids epidemic
scare of the early 1980s that ITV companies and the BBC have been asked to
allow a public service broadcast by the government on a health warning, and it
underlines the depth of concern in Whitehall over the need to dispel notions
that the MMR jab may be linked to autism.
The campaign will start with an open letter setting
out the case for the mumps, measles and rubella jab being sent to all 12,000 GP
surgeries in England and Wales and 24,000 other health bodies.
An MMR advertising campaign is expected within a
fortnight; the Department of Health has re-appointed the advertising agency BMP
DDB to handle it after a £3m drive last year urging families to take up the
triple vaccine. Full-page newspaper adverts, endorsed by Professor Donaldson
and Sarah Mullally, the Chief Nursing Officer, will be followed by a
"mopping up" exercise aimed at persuading parents of unvaccinated
children aged 18-21 months to talk to GPs' nurses about the jab.
The campaign, officials said, will exert emotional
pressure, emphasising that vaccination protects the entire population.
Yvette Cooper, the Public Health minister, who
allowed her first child to have the MMR vaccine, has put Professor Donaldson in
charge of the public relations strategy to distance ministers from the advice
given the public.
But No 10's website this weekend says "the
Government strongly supports" the jabs. The site states:
·
MMR saves lives
·
The vaccine is the best
way of protecting children
·
Since MMR was
introduced in the UK the number of children catching these diseases has fallen
to an all-time low
·
MMR is used in over 90
countries, with more than 500 million MMR doses given.
·
No child has died of
acute measles in over a decade
·
Independent experts
agree that on all the evidence available, there is no link between MMR and
either autism or inflammatory bowel disease
·
Separate single
vaccines put children at risk and there is no evidence that giving them is as
safe as MMR. No country recommends single rather than combined vaccines.
Also from the Health
section.
Nurseries to warn parents of MMR rate
Troubleshooters to be sent into ailing
hospitals
Cost of pills to conquer depression hits
£310m
Troubleshooters to take over 'worst'
hospitals
MMR chief blames the media for jab
'errors'
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