Anxieties about the safety of the MMR vaccine were heightened yesterday as fresh evidence pointed to a link with autism and bowel disease.

Following recent tests which showed that children suffering from autism and bowel disorder had the same strain of measles in their intestines as the one in the controversial triple jab, Westcountry parents called for single vaccines to be made available immediately.

And they said they were ready to spend £240 on three single jabs to protect them, rather than get the triple vaccine free and expose their children to health risks.

Debra Reavill, from Ladock, near Truro, is waiting for her fifth child, but said she would never consider inoculating the baby with the triple vaccine.

"The report makes me even warier and I shall mention it to parents in a similar situation," she said.

"The Government put out a report last week saying the jab was safe, but all they did was review the reviews. They didn't sway me. All I can say is that there is no smoke without fire and I don't accept the Government's words.

"The triple jab is available for free on the NHS list and my GP recommended it for my children. But I simply didn't trust them. I and other parents in a similar situation got in touch with a private company in London which agreed to fly to Cornwall and immunise the children with the single vaccine."

Direct Health 2000, the company mentioned by Mrs Reavill, operates clinics in Cornwall every 12 weeks.

"We have always known that the triple jab was not safe," said the company's Cathrine Durnford.

"And we have always backed the research carried out by Dr Andrew Wakefield who was the first to draw attention to the risks involved in this drug."

Mrs Durnford said the recent discovery made by Professor John O'Leary, of Trinity College, Dublin, was based on research which pinned the measles lodged in children's guts down to MMR vaccination.

And the new findings were due to be presented at the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland next month.

Dr Wakefield, who first raised concerns about MMR in 1998, said: "The Government says there is no evidence of bowel disease in these children and that they are normal.

"Now it has been found that they have the vaccine strain of measles in their gut. That is significant. The Government are running out of places to go on this.

"There can be no justification for not making the single measles jab available."

But the Department of Health insisted that MMR was safe - a view backed by the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Paediatricians and GPs, and the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors' Association.

A spokesman added: "There is no proven link between MMR, autism and bowel disease, and as for its safety, we would point to a British Medical Journal research article last week which looked at more than 2,000 studies and found no evidence of any link."

However, Mrs Reavill said: "Now more than ever I feel I have to encourage parents to choose the single vaccine.

"We know nothing about the safety of this triple jab and we simply don't want to endanger our children's lives. There is nothing more frightening than to live with someone who is autistic."

Mrs Durnford said that one in seven British children was suffering from autism. "We do sell the single jab for £80, and parents are ready to pay this sum rather than expose their babies to dangers," she said. "It is their children's safety after all, and they have a right to choose.

"The Government may do what they want, but I think they have a duty to allow parents to have a choice and make both the single and the triple vaccine available on the NHS lists."

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