No further forward in quest for answers

AFTER two months of delay, and amid numerous reports of infighting, a group of medical experts appointed to examine the safety of the controversial MMR vaccine finally delivered their verdict yesterday.

But moments after the panel’s chairman announced that its "unanimous decision" was to recommend to the health minister that the triple jab, not single vaccines, should remain Scotland’s policy, factions within the 19-strong group were already voicing different views.

The Very Rev Graham Forbes, who has chaired the expert group on immunisation since it was set up last August to consider the implications of a single vaccine policy amid plummeting uptake rates of the triple jab, said: "The current scientific evidence does not support the hypothesised link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

"The expert group reached the same conclusion on the basis of careful appraisal of the current scientific evidence."

However, Jane Hook, of the Scottish Society for Autism, who is also a member of the expert group, said later her organisation’s position had not changed and that she believed parents should be given the choice of single vaccines on the NHS if they wished.

Mrs Hook, whose 15-year-old daughter Rachel is autistic, said: "Even though the report clearly states there is no evidence at this time, parental concerns have to be taken on board."

One of the recommendations of the report is to pass these concerns to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which rules on Britain’s vaccine policy.

The panel has also called for more research into the causes of autism and bowel disease. But campaigners last night said they were angry that it failed to offer single vaccines as a choice to parents who are worried that MMR may be linked to autism and bowel disease.

The expert group has been dogged with controversy since it was established in response to concerns by the parliament’s health committee last year.

A petition was presented to parliament in 2000 calling for single vaccines as a choice, signed by the parents of autistic children who felt that their concerns regarding MMR safety were being treated with contempt by the JCVI.

The health committee felt that experts should investigate the matter, not politicians.

The expert group, appointed by the former health minister, Susan Deacon, consisted largely of public health doctors and vaccine experts - who supported the triple vaccine - and a smaller faction of autism experts who were concerned about its safety.

The report was due in Febuary but was delayed amid rumours of a split over the question of offering single vaccines.

Meanwhile, as the experts debated the contentious issue, Scotland’s immunisation rates slumped dramatically to just 86.6 per cent and the country’s first outbreak of measles in two years was confirmed in Fife.

The Scotsman revealed that four of the experts had admitted having financial links to a pharmaceutical firm which makes the vaccine, a revelation which some parents said compromised the group’s independence.

According to declaration of members’ interests, Professor Eve Johnstone, a leading psychiatrist at Edinburgh University, has about £10,000 worth of shares in GlaxoSmithKline.

Dr Andrew Riley, the director of public health for Borders NHS board, has 40 shares in GlaxoSmithKline and Professor Lewis Ritchie, the head of general practice and primary care at the University of Aberdeen, has single-company PEP investments in GlaxoSmithKline.

Dr David Goldblatt, a consultant paediatric immunologist at Great Ormond Street Children’s NHS Trust, has admitted receiving "industrial support" from a number firms that manufacture vaccines.

GlaxoSmithKline is one of several pharmaceutical firms defending a forthcoming High Court action in London brought by about 2,000 UK families who believe their children were damaged by vaccines.

The Executive, which fully backs the findings of the report, has always been adamant the group would be "objective and work with integrity".

But its failure to recommend any real alternative to parents concerned about the safety of MMR has angered many, and has raised the spectre of yet another lengthy investigation into the triple jab.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP’s health spokeswoman, has already said she will call on the health committee to investigate the entire issue a second time.

Some parents have postponed having their children vaccinated until the publication of this report. But, according to Bill Welsh, the chairman of Action Against Autism, the group has simply allowed the issue to come full circle.

He said: "Over two years ago a petition was presented to the Scottish parliament calling for single vaccines as a choice. This simple request was made directly to the parliamentarians, as the parents of autistic children felt that their concerns over MMR safety were being treated with contempt by the JCVI.

"Today, the so-called expert group has handed the decision on single vaccines to the JCVI. Two years of campaigning and we are right back where we started."

AGAINST: KNOW THE FACTS

TRACY Steele has triplet sons. Just days after they received the MMR jab, they all ran a high temperature and were in pain and distressed. They soon recovered but their mother began to notice a deterioration in each boy.

Ms Steele, 34, from Glasgow, said: "Stuart, Glen and Bobby were beginning to say words like ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ before they had the MMR, but that stopped. They became zombie-like in their behaviour. They stopped talking and began showing signs of having problems with their sight. They would trip over toys on the floor."

Since then, the boys, now seven, have all been diagnosed with similar problems. Stuart is the most severely affected and has cerebral palsy of the visual system, language disorder and, possibly, Asperger’s Syndrome.

Bobby has severe autism and mild cerebral palsy. Glen has language disorder. All three have bowel problems. They attend a school for children with special needs and their mother says they are all making good progress. But, she admits, life is very difficult.

"It is a real struggle looking after these boys. Their lives are a nightmare, and I believe they have been ruined by the MMR vaccine.

"I am trying to help them all I can and they have shown some improvements on special diets, but the medical profession really does not know what to do with children with autism and bowel disease.

"To say the MMR vaccine is the safest option for children is rubbish. No doctor has been able to explain to me why my three boys reacted to MMR and became disabled at exactly the same time. If they could prove it had nothing to do with the vaccine I would be satisfied.

"I have always been in good health and there is no family history of these conditions. I have a lot of questions, but no-one has been able to give me any answers."

She added: "I accepted that my children should have MMR and did not give it a second thought, and I have regretted that decision ever since. But they will never receive another vaccine. I am afraid of what it might do to them.

"I urge parents to look at all the evidence on MMR versus single vaccines and listen to people like me before taking the chance with their child."

FOR: SAFER FOR ALL

NORMA McGarry believes the MMR jab should be compulsory for all children.

She became infected with German measles (rubella) when she was pregnant with her son, Nicholas. The condition has left him partially sighted and profoundly deaf, with feeding and behavioural problems.

Mrs McGarry, 46, from Airdrie, gave her full support yesterday for the MMR expert group’s recommendations.

She said: "With the introduction of the triple vaccine, the number of babies born with congenital rubella syndrome have dropped massively. So have the number of terminations carried out as a result of unborn children being affected.

"Personally, I would be very concerned if we saw a decrease in the uptake of the vaccine.

"By reducing the illness in circulation, there is less chance of a person developing it during pregnancy.

"I think the Scottish Executive must allay parents’ fears now that this report has come out. I can completely sympathise with parents with ill children, but I feel there is a more worrying underlying issue at stake here. The more children that remain unvaccinated, the more chance there is of pregnant mums picking up the infection."

When Nicholas, now 12, was born by emergency section he had a very low birth weight and was covered in a rash. A placenta test after the birth showed that Mrs McGarry had contracted rubella.

In Nicholas’s first few weeks, his health gradually deteriorated. It was the beginning of an uphill struggle for the boy, who doctors said would have a very poor quality of life if he survived.

Today, Mrs McGarry says the expert care and attention that Nicholas receives at Carn Booth special school, in Carmunnock, along with the support he receives from Sense in Scotland, has helped him to come on in "leaps and bounds".

She added: "The doctors said he would never walk, but now he is a boisterous kid who enjoys walking, climbing and swimming.

"I have taken the precaution of having our other two children, Emma, ten, and Adam, seven, vaccinated with the MMR vaccine, and, at 13 weeks, Nicholas had the mumps and measles vaccination."