By Mary Dundon, Political Reporter

A PRIVATE British health clinic will offer Irish parents the choice of single measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines for their babies for €390 starting next January. Health Choice UK Ltd has provided the single vaccines to 60,000 British babies since the first scare linking autism to the three-on-one MMR vaccine emerged over two years ago.

While scientists differ over the link between the MMR vaccine and autism, the levels of autism have increased dramatically in Britain and the US since it was introduced in the early 1980s, according to Health Choice UK director Kathryn Durnford.

"Since 1987 one in every 166 children born in the UK is autistic this is epidemic levels but you cannot have an epidemic of autism because it is not contagious so there must be something else causing it," Ms Durnford said.

Before MMR there was a 47-year record of safety in Britain when these vaccines were given individually and no rise in the numbers of autistic, said Ms Durnford.

There has been a huge demand for the single vaccinations in Britain and parents there don't mind paying stg£80 per shot to be certain that their babies are not exposed to any risk, Mr Durnford said.

"We got so many calls from worried parents in Ireland that we decided to come over here and set up a clinic in Dublin and if the demand continues we will set up out-reach centres around the country," she said.

The MMR vaccine is provided free here and in Britain by the respective health authorities but it would cost 130 euro a shot to get them individually in a private clinic.

However, 97% of parents who signed up for their programme in Britain completed the course.

"The Government here and in the UK should give parents a choice of the single vaccine if they want it otherwise they are just playing Russian roulette with their children's lives," Ms Durnford added.

However, Health Minister Micheál Martin recently told the Dáil that the international consensus from professional bodies showed MMR was a safe vaccine and recent research did not support a causal link between MMR and autism. There was no evidence that giving the vaccines separately had any greater benefit than the combined vaccines.

Splitting the MMR vaccine into separate components would involve extra injections for children and cause them and the people with whom they come in contact with to be exposed to these potentially serious diseases for a much longer period, he said