http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=120655

 

The fears that won’t go away

Kate Foster Health Correspondent

THE report which sparked the controversy over vaccines against three major childhood diseases suggested some children had developed autism soon after having the triple jab.

The 1998 study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, warned that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine should be divided into its three component parts and given separately.

Dr Andrew Wakefield, from London’s Royal Free Hospital who led the research team, suggested the combined jab delivers a jolt to the child’s developing immune system which could be reduced if it were divided.

The backlash was immediate. The medical establishment seized on the small scale of the study as it had only looked at 12 children. Subsequent, larger projects were commissioned, but in the three years since The Lancet report, no other has proved a link, a fact health officials are at pains to point out.

Dr David Salisbury, a paediatrician with 20 years’ experience said: "There remains no study that identifies evidence of a link between MMR and autism. And I hope that soon, some of the silliness about MMR will have gone."

He added: "I can understand why parents feel the way they do. If there is an external event like the onset of autism, it is very tempting to believe that MMR played a part. The trouble is that the evidence does not support this. If it did, why would we ignore it?"

However, despite the evidence, parents have remained unconvinced. Hundreds of British families with autistic children believe the condition was caused by the MMR jab.

Jackie Fletcher, spokeswoman for Jabs, the support group for vaccine-damaged children, said 600 of her members have received legal aid in their class action for compensation against the Department of Health and three pharmaceutical firms who made the vaccines.

She added: "The fact that families have got legal aid speaks volumes. That means there is case to answer. We feel the vaccine was not trialled for long enough and we believe there is a question of negligence because there was a failure to monitor the system properly."

But the consequences of publicity over cases like the Jabs families have been a reduction in the numbers of children protected and fears that an epidemic of measles, mumps or rubella may follow.

Before immunisation against measles was introduced, the disease killed around 90 children a year in the UK. Now, levels of MMR uptake have dropped in Scotland to below what is regarded a safe level. The number of children in Scotland immunised with the triple MMR jab has fallen to its lowest level since records began.

The proportion of two-year-olds in Scotland receiving the jab in June stood at 87.8 per cent - down from 90.7 per cent in March. Supporters of the triple jab point out that if single vaccines were to be introduced, they would leave children unprotected for extended periods while the course was completed and would raise the likelihood of epidemics.

Scottish GPs are to be issued with discussion packs to encourage health professionals and parents to review the evidence on vaccinations.

Meanwhile, a new group of experts will discuss a Scottish parliament committee report into MMR jabs which found no proven link. The group will also examine the apparent rise in autism among children.

But if the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommends that the chickenpox vaccine is added to the childhood immunisation programme, parents will have to be convinced - a task Dr Salisbury is acutely aware of.

He has described the live chickenpox strain as "very safe". But Mrs Fletcher said: "They say the MMR is safe and we think it is not. This has only been in use in the States for five years and even then as a single dose. We have no idea of the long-term consequences [of MMR] or the consequences of combining it to make a quadruple jab."

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.