According to the HPA parents are to blame for not allowing the MMR innoculation. Personally, I blame the HPA for, on the grounds of cost, not allowing the single, anti-measles jab that used to be offered.

Isn't the great unmentionable here that it's the hundreds of thousands of immigrant children now in the country that havn't been innoculated?

An obvious outcome of the media whipping up the MMR scare a few years ago.

And don't try to dump all the blame on Andrew Wakefield. He was just a single researcher; many more experts said there was no problem with MMR. It was the irresponsible media who chose to emphasise Wakefield's opinions while ignoring or playing down the others, thereby exaggerating the dangers of MMR, frightening parents and creating this terrible situation.

The problem has been down to the Government pushing the MMR injections as the only alternative to deal with Measles, and trying to give the impression that single injections were not a viable option. In fact the attitude of the authorities was both patronising and dictatorial, and this served to reinforce the opposition to MMR.

The result has been that many children have had no injections for Measles, Mumps and Rubella at all.
Single injections for Measles for children, would have prevented this situation, and it could have been down to parental choice as to whether single injections for Mumps and Rubella could have been prescribed.

I'm of the generation that got all the childhood diseases, along with all the neighbouring kids. None of us died. As other posters said, it helps one build up one's natural resistance.

I agree with many of the comments blaming the epidemic on not allowing the single jab. My daughter has pleaded with her GP and health visitor for the the single jab for her child. They have just said it is not an option and she was put under enormous pressure to give her child the MMR. She desperately wants her child vaccinated but is hitting a brick wall . There is a history of autism in my family and my daughter simply does not want to take any chances. She has explored several other avenues herself to try to obtain information about where she can get a single jab but the cost is too much and she would have to travel to the other end of the country. She has also been told that a single vaccine at a private clinic may not be of the quality offered by her surgery. Where do you go from here ? To place the blame on parents is grossly unfair as I am sure that my daughter is not alone in researching single jabs and also having sleepness nights due to the worry about what to do. She is most definately not irresponsible.

What utter rubbish. The Independent some times gives the impression that it is in the business of spreading health scares. Sars, HIV, Bird Flu are just three scares that were going to finish us all off but I am still here fit as a fiddle.

When I was young there were just a few vaccinations - thank God - but now there are dozens. And look at the state of the kids. Hyperactive, fat and obese, aggressive, depressed.

I know a few children who have never been vaccinated or only had a couple and they are all perfectly healthy. In fact they avoid the "usual" diseases like measles but then they have parents who do not let them have the modern diet and lifestyle.

The Government is totally culpable for this epidemic by not allowing the single vaccine to be given. The reason for this ,I believe, is cost, which is an absolute disgrace. If I was a parent of a young child today, I should not want to risk taking my undamaged child to have the vaccination, knowing there might be a chance afterwards of an adverse reaction and that I had ruined my child's life.

There has never been controversy in the medical profession over the safety of MMR. The media, especially many newspapers have a lot to anwer for. As the Independent today points out that, 50 years ago 500 children a year died. Many more will have suffered permanent damage.

In Japan the MMR is not aproved of as a triple vaccine. Would somone kindly explain why the Japanese, with its avanced healthcare system, consider the MMR unsafe.

Dear Jill.

I'm sorry to put a dampener in your obviously deep psychological need to feel like you are bravely standing up against an establishment conspiracy to hide the truth of what the unclean immigrants are doing to the helpless natives, but in the future could you please try reading the article you are commenting about.

"Elizabeth Miller, head of immunisation at the HPA, said: "In 1994 we interrupted the spread of measles in the UK so that it ceased to be endemic. Since that time the only cases we have had have been as a result of importation and spread from those imported cases. Now we have reached a point where there are a sufficient number of susceptible [unvaccinated] children in the population to sustain spread of the disease. We are concerned there may be a return to pre-1994 levels where there was sustained spread. It is quite disturbing."

So no big PC conspiracy then. What a shame for you!

It is clear that people do not trust the government or the medical profession or the pharmaceutical companies over their claims that there are not health risks with MMR.
These vaccines were (still are?) laden with toxic mercury. Given the large number of vaccines given to very young & vulnerable babies it makes good sense for parents to avoid injecting known & recognised poisons.
People do not want to mistrust the health recommendations but what have the authorities done to allay that mistrust. People are not stupid & among the many who avoid MMR & other vaccines are many health professionals.
It is not only in this country that there had been a rise in autism over the years & there seems to be a correlation between this rise in autism cases generally & the increase in MMR vaccinations.
People are taking rational decisions based on a risk assessment which takes into account the probability of a disease & severity of its effects. They are deciding that the probability of autism being caused by MMR may be low but the effects of autism is of such a severity that the risks are not justified.
Such risk assessments are routinely carried out in industry by professional engineers & scientists (it is known as Failure Modes & Effect Analysis or FMEA). When parents do the same they are derided & sneered at by the authorities.

Yes, I had measles too, and I didn't die!

But I would imagine that the many children who did die, or who suffered irreversible brain damage, due to measles or rubella, prior to MMR's introduction in 1988, won't be contributing to this discussion.

Of course, if the government had permitted (less safe) single vaccines, the anti-MMR campaign would have cited that as evidence of official doubts.

First of all provide single vaccines
Second inform parents that jab is not part of a bonus deal with doctors
Third tell parents how many children contracting measles are vaccinated with MMR
Fourth stop scapegoating children who are not vaccinated - my grandchildren are not vaccinated and they are the healthiest kids in their school classes
Fifth explain that 'herd immunity' is a phoney construct, if it has any validity it only applies to naturally acquired conditions and there is no science or evidence to suggest that 'herd immunity' can be gained through vaccination
Lastly explain that the relative absence of measles is due to good nutrition, healthier living conditions and general awareness of hygiene. You could add that scarlet fever is also rare (very rare) and there has never been a vaccine for that. Hygiene and nutrition etc as before.

Tony Bateson

Brian Deer has no evidence that single vaccines are less safe, and even in countries which have some form of compulsion over vaccine single vaccines are permitted. On the other hand in this country much of the touted shortfall in MMR uptake is made up by parents paying for single vaccines, so the issue of coverage is different from that made out by the HPA.

Also the problem seems to be less the failure in vaccine uptake than the fact that apparently the vaccine isn't working efficiently. In the recent SE London outbreak the HPA were requiring revaccination after one month with infants, or at the latest three, without even checking their immunity.

http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?start=2160&end=2180&view=yes&id=2602#newspost

The public face the difficulty that health officials never really tell you what is going on, they only tell you what they think you ought to know. The risk of measles mortality in the modern developed world is tiny, even without vaccination. In the case of measles mortality was at one percent of the level at the beginning of the last century when the vaccine was first introduced in 1968. Both incidence and mortality continued on the downward trend though vaccine coverage was quite moderate before MMR was introduced in 1988

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/clifford.g.miller/risks.html#Measles

It is actually quite uncertain what MMR contributed to the further decline. As we see in this case the most serious risk is to someone whose health is heavily compromised, for whom vaccine is inappropriate anyway.

Of course, if you do vaccinate and it goes wrong you will not be popular with either the medical profession or the Government.

THE UK GOVERNMENT IS ATTEMPTING TO MISLEAD EVERYONE BY USING THE TRAGIC DEATH OF THIS YOUNG LAD FROM MEASLES TO PROP UP A DEEPLY FLAWED VACCINATION PROGRAMME.
HAD HEALTH OFFICIALS ACCEDED TO THE PUBLIC’S DEMAND FOR SINGLE VACCINES AS A CHOICE TO MMR THEN THIS DEATH MAY HAVE BEEN AVERTED.
REST ASSURED THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS BOY’S DEATH LIES WITH THOSE IN CHARGE OF VACCINATION POLICY.
SINCE MMR WAS INTRODUCED THE RATE OF AUTISM IN THE UK HAS RISEN TO 1 CHILD IN 84. WHY IS THIS TRAGIC DEVELOPMENT NOT BEING INVESTIGATED?

WE KNOW THE GOVERNMENTS STRATEGY FOR DEALING WITH MEASLES. WHAT IS THE STRATEGY FOR DEALING WITH AUTISM?

Has anyone ever wondered what the true purpose of vaccination might be? Why it is so important to be ‘protected’ against all those nasty things that did not seem to be so much of a problem all those years ago? A time when no one in your school ever died or developed lesser complications from what were considered to be usual childhood ailments. When ‘hay fever’ was effectively unknown and when no one exhibited any of those characteristics that would be classed as autism in these healthy and enlightened times. With an autism rate in the UK of one in a hundred - four times more prevalent in males -(www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/109889.php) you have to wonder if something is not quite right with the System.

Out of interest, I looked up Autism in my 1983 Readers Digest Family Medical Adviser. The entry begins: ‘The cause of this rare childhood condition, which affects boys more than girls, is unknown.’ Then I had a look at the Measles entry, which includes: ‘Most victims recover completely but it can sometimes be very serious.’ Vaccination is mentioned as the best protection against the usual side effects, but there is a comment that it can occasionally lead to serious complications. The Outlook section states: ‘Recovery from measles is usually complete.’

So, in 1983, autism was a rare condition; now it’s one in a hundred. The propaganda is that it is absolutely essential to be protected against this deadly disease. Why the urgency? Is there something we are not being told? Would it be wise, if you are the parent of a target child, to ask some questions about the origin and content of the substance that is going to be injected, and whether the complication rate from the vaccine might be greater than that from the disease itself? Are you sure that all this is really for our benefit?

Recently, we've seen mounting concern in the U.S. and the U.K. over unvaccinated children at risk for disease. The same agencies sounding the alarm over non-compliance fail completely to recognize the epidemic rate of autism, affecting more than 1 percent of children in the UK.

Parents are much more concerned about vaccine safety when officials are unable to give us a reasonable explanation for so many disabled children everywhere.

Anne McElroy Dachel
Media Editor Age of Autism

how sad that this boy, who wasn't going to be immunized anyway and has died from measles is a way of telling parents to have the MMR. Lots of children have poor or low immune systems, most of the time we do not know who they are, babies and children are not tested for their immune system function before receiving 19 vaccines at the age of 4 months. If were told I were going to have that many in a short amount of time I would question that. They have 2 more vaccines at 12 months, 4 more at 13months (total of 25 in 13 months when babies are fragile and developing) which is MMR and Pneumococcal. At Three years and
four months or soon after children have Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio, Measles, mumps and rubella. How is this safe. They are questioning this in the USA. We have riding rates of ill children children in the UK, ADHD, ASTHMA, AUTISM, ALLERGIES.

Jakers: what is your explanation for why autism was a very rare condition less than 30 years ago and is now at least one in every hundred children? Why would you dismiss the 'anecdotal' evidence from parents who claim that complications developed shortly after the MMR vaccine had been administered?

First let me say how sorry I am about this seventeen year old boy died from measles. For the grace of God it could have been any child who has an impaired immune system. More research needs to be done on how we can protect these children. This poor boy was in a catch twenty two. Could not have a vaccine because of his immune system and at risk of disease killing him (not just measles).
It is interesting to read all the comments. I understand that some children who have the MMR vaccine also catch measles. What studies have been done on children who have been given two lots of MMR vaccine? When they reach seventeen years how many of them are still immune? Why does the Department of Health not give choice of the single vaccine also? I have four sons and two had the natural measles in the first year of their lives and they are well. My other two children had the MMR vaccine and the first was very ill within hours of having it.
I was told it was nothing to do with the vaccine and waiting until my youngest was twenty months old and gave in. It was my Dad who said to listen to the doctor. My youngest also had a bad reaction and now both are suffering pain every day of their lives. Our family never the same again. There is no proper help out their for them as doctors do not was to research into the possibility that they are carrying the vaccine strain measles virus in their blood stream slowly destroying them. (it was found in both my boys but not reconised by the medical profession)Doctors are frightened to say the word 'vaccine damaged' as they do not want to be attacked like Professor Walker Smith, Dr. Simon Murch, Dr Andrew Wakefield and Dr. Jayne Donegan (who won her case at the GMC but the media did not report that important story) Tell me who is going to look after our children now? In the USA thousands of children are taking the government to court over vaccine damage but this is not reported in the UK. Yes there are a lot of children damaged by greedy drug companies and blanket vaccinations no matter if their are children 'at risk' from vaccines. A major study of our children and why they reacted should be under way urgently. There is a massive epidemic of damaged children in this country and this is a major health scare.
Wake up before it is your child.

I have had to pay on average £720 for each of my 3 boys for the six jabs they each needed. I am very angry that there is no choice for parents and the newspapers and government always seem to put the blame solely in the lap of the parents. Until parents are given a choice over vaccinations I can only see the situation getting worse as a lot of people can't afford to pay privately. There might be a small percentage of children who develop Autism after having the MMR but nobody knows who these children are. To a lot of parents it is not worth risking the life quality of themselves and their children just for the sake of an injection. It's not a case of asking how parents can be reassured it's about parents having a choice.

Jakers,

With respect:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-376203/Former-science-chief-MMR-fears-coming-true.html

A former Government medical officer responsible for deciding whether medicines are safe has accused the Government of "utterly inexplicable complacency" over the MMR triple vaccine for children.

Dr Peter Fletcher, who was Chief Scientific Officer at the Department of Health, said if it is proven that the jab causes autism, "the refusal by governments to evaluate the risks properly will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history".

He added that after agreeing to be an expert witness on drug-safety trials for parents' lawyers, he had received and studied thousands of documents relating to the case which he believed the public had a right to see.

He said he has seen a "steady accumulation of evidence" from scientists worldwide that the measles, mumps and rubella jab is causing brain damage in certain children.

But he added: "There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves."

His warning follows reports that the Government is this week planning to announce the addition of a jab against pneumococcal meningitis for babies, probably from next April. It is also considering flu jabs for under-twos - not to protect the children, but adults they may infect.

In the late Seventies, Dr Fletcher served as Chief Scientific Officer at the DoH and Medical Assessor to the Committee on Safety of Medicines, meaning he was responsible for deciding if new vaccines were safe.

He first expressed concerns about MMR in 2001, saying safety trials before the vaccine's introduction in Britain were inadequate.

Now he says the theoretical fears he raised appear to be becoming reality.

He said the rising tide of autism cases and growing scientific understanding of autism-related bowel disease have convinced him the MMR vaccine may be to blame.

"Clinical and scientific data is steadily accumulating that the live measles virus in MMR can cause brain, gut and immune system damage in a subset of vulnerable children," he said. "There's no one conclusive piece of scientific evidence, no 'smoking gun', because there very rarely is when adverse drug reactions are first suspected. When vaccine damage in very young children is involved, it is harder to prove the links.

"But it is the steady accumulation of evidence, from a number of respected universities, teaching hospitals and laboratories around the world, that matters here. There's far too much to ignore. Yet government health authorities are, it seems, more than happy to do so."

'Why isn't the Government taking this massive public health problem more seriously?'

Dr Fletcher said he found "this official complacency utterly inexplicable" in the light of an explosive worldwide increase in regressive autism and inflammatory bowel disease in children, which was first linked to the live measles virus in the MMR jab by clinical researcher Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998.

"When scientists first raised fears of a possible link between mad cow disease and an apparently new, variant form of CJD they had detected in just 20 or 30 patients, everybody panicked and millions of cows were slaughtered," said Dr Fletcher.

"Yet there has been a tenfold increase in autism and related forms of brain damage over the past 15 years, roughly coinciding with MMR's introduction, and an extremely worrying increase in childhood inflammatory bowel diseases and immune disorders such as diabetes, and no one in authority will even admit it's happening, let alone try to investigate the causes."

He said there was "no way" the tenfold leap in autistic children could be the result of better recognition and definitional changes, as claimed by health authorities.

"It is highly likely that at least part of this increase is a vaccinerelated problem." he said. "But whatever it is, why isn't the Government taking this massive public health problem more seriously?"

His outspokenness will infuriate health authorities, who have spent millions of pounds shoring up confidence in MMR since Dr Wakefield's 1998 statement.

But Dr Fletcher said the Government is undermining public confidence in vaccine safety by refusing to do in-depth clinical research to rule out fears of MMR damage to children.

He added that the risks of brain and gut damage from MMR injections seem to be much higher in children where a brother or sister has diabetes, an immune disorder.

"That is a very strong clinical signal that some children are immunologically at risk from MMR," he said. "Why is the Government not investigating it further - diverting some of the millions of pounds spent on advertising and PR campaigns to promote MMR uptake into detailed clinical research instead?"

Now retired after a distinguished 40-year career in science and medicine in Britain, Europe and the US, Dr Fletcher said that without such research, health authorities could not possibly rule out fears about MMR.

He said: "It is entirely possible that the immune systems of a small minority simply cannot cope with the challenge of the three live viruses in the MMR jab, and the ever-increasing vaccine load in general."

He said he had decided to speak out because of his deep concern at the lack of treatment for autistic children with bowel disease, as revealed in The Mail on Sunday two weeks ago.

He called the sudden termination of legal aid to parents of allegedly vaccine-damaged children in late 2003 "a monstrous injustice". After agreeing to be a witness for the parents, he received thousands of documents relating to the case.

"Now, it seems, unless the parents force the Government to restore legal aid, much of this revealing evidence may never come out," he said.

My son had one dose of the MMR and now has measles living in his intestines. I would rather he caught the measles and gotten over it than him to live with a chronic case. GF/CF diet and anti-inflamatories keep him cognitively on track, but his allergies are awful due to an immune system kept in hyperdrive from chronic bowel disease.

There are so many profoundly serious issues connected to the vaccine programme which have yet to be written about in the British Press that its difficult to know where to start.

Here is one issue:

Professor Elizabeth Miller, Head of the Immunization Department in the UK who worked closely with Bob Chen at the CDC when the first Thimerosal studies were being "managed", sat in the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation/Adverse Reactions Sub Committee, with Dr David Salisbury and none other that Professor Roy Meadow, of MBSP fame, when the MMR was being introduced.

In the Sally Clark case, Professor Meadow accused her of killing two children who had just been vaccinated, one just 5 hours earlier. To my certain knowledge, as a Psychologist specialising in Autism since 1993, and working as a generic Psychologist since 1984, many parents whose children reacted to a vaccine have been wrongly accused of MSBP. Known side effects have been morphed into child abuse. Workers have been taught to view them this way and act accordingly. Some have had their children taken from them, some were sent to prison and Sally Clark lost her children and her life.

Gerberding in the US in the last two days has cast serious doubt on the validity and reliability of the epidemiology of which Professor Miller was a part.

What has been going on behind the dark curtain of international pharmaceutical/political commercial interests?

Why would Professor Meadow accuse people of harming their children when he knew vaccine reaction had to be part of the differential diagnosis? Why would Professor Miller allow herself to be involved in flawed epidemiology?

Why would Professor Salisbury, as a Government medical representative allow all of it to happen?