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12 April 2005
Local GPs warn of shortage of MMR vaccine
Local GPs have warned that supplies of the MMR vaccine in Northern Ireland could be running out following a mumps outbreak among teenagers and young adults.
Northern Ireland’s current mumps outbreak is the worst in the 15 years since records began, with family doctors being asked to return any unused supplies so these can be re-distributed.
Commenting on the news, Ulster Unionist MP for North Down, Lady Hermon, said: “Bad planning on the part of the Department of Health is putting our young people at risk”.
“Children are most at risk from mumps and measles; if we allow such incompetence on the part of the Department of Health to continue unaddressed and allow young children and babies to go unvaccinated, they will be seriously at risk from these diseases. This must be addressed as a matter of urgency,” she added.
Northern Ireland´s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Henrietta Campbell, said most of those affected by the current outbreak were aged in their late teens and believed to have only had one dose of a mumps-containing vaccine such as MMR.
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