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PARENTS who have registered their children for
single mumps vaccines at a Liverpool clinic are being forced to wait
until next year before the jabs can be given.
Delays in the import of the vaccines from overseas
mean that not enough are available for children in the UK.
Hundreds of children are waiting for the jabs as
their parents have opted not to allow them to have the NHS's triple
measles, mumps and rubella vaccination, known as MMR, due to fears it
can cause autism.
Direct Health 2000, which has a private clinic in
Rodney Street, Liverpool, and London, is warning parents that the mumps
vaccines will not be available until at least January.
But the company's MD, Sarah Dean, says mumps is the
least serious of the three diseases and urged parents not to worry. She
said: "Mumps is not a killer. Why exactly are we vaccinating children,
is my question?
"Yes, there will be some cases of mumps
encephalitis, but they are so rare - autism is not."
However the Department of Health is adamant that
children should be immunised against the illness.
A spokesman said: "Mumps used to be the biggest
cause of viral meningitis in the country.
"It didn't often kill, but it was a high cause of
hospitalisation before 1988 when the vaccine was introduced.
"It is very serious if you get it as an adult male
from a fertility point of view and can also cause deafness in children
if viral meningitis is contracted."
In a letter to parents, Mrs Dean says opposition
from the Department of Health and government restrictions have prevented
them from purchasing the vaccines they need.
However the Government says that, as the vaccines
being used are not licensed in the UK and have no safety guarantee, they
only allow small amounts to be imported at any one time as a patient
safety measure.
But Mrs Dean told the Daily Post that everyone who
had signed up for the course of injections would receive them
eventually. She added: "When every child starts the course, the three
vaccines are ordered for them and the Medicines Control Agency is duty
bound to supply us with the vaccine.
"Three companies have gone in to production to
supply us with the vaccines and they should be with us by January. When
they arrive we plan to open on Sundays to make sure everybody is
vaccinated as quickly as possible."
The single injections are only done through private
clinics - Direct Health 2000 charges £60 per injection at its Rodney
Street centre and has more than 1,000 children on its books.
The company says parents are still requesting
single vaccines, despite the mumps delay.
The take-up rate on the triple MMR jab is also
increasing. Latest figures from the Public Health Laboratory Service
reported an increase of half a per cent on the previous quarter. |