Thousands of Scots children get single jabs as anxious parents pay up to avoid MMR
By Judith Duffy, Health Correspondent
THOUSANDS of children in Scotland have received single jabs to protect them against measles, mumps, and rubella instead of the controversial MMR vaccine during the past five years.
An investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed worried parents are flocking to private clinics offering individual jabs costing hundreds of pounds, many years after disputed research suggested a link between the vaccine and autism.
One clinic offering the alternative to the triple MMR vaccine claimed demand has doubled in Scotland since 2001.
The findings, which confirm that many parents still harbour doubts over the safety of MMR, come after it emerged that Dr Andrew Wakefield, who raised fears over the triple vaccine in 1998, could be facing a charge of professional misconduct. Wakefield linked the MMR jab with autism and bowel problems.
Choice Healthcare Services, which runs a clinic every 12 weeks in Glasgow, has seen the number of children attending rise from around 50 per session in 2001 to more than 100 now. It charges £100 each for measles and rubella vaccination and £150 for mumps.
Mauva Reid, nurse director, said: “Each time we go to Glasgow we have an increase of around 10 or 12 more families. We are coming down next weekend and have more than 100 booked.”
Another company, Direct Remedies, has run clinics every six to eight weeks in Glasgow for the past four years, with charges ranging from £80 to £120 per vaccination. A spokeswoman said that sessions were always fully booked, with around 120 children attending.
One private GP surgery, which promotes the use of MMR but offers single jabs to children in cases when it is feared would they otherwise remain unvaccinated, also told the Sunday Herald that around 30 to 50 children a month received the single vaccines.
Campaigners who have backed Wakefield´s concerns over MMR have repeatedly called for single vaccines to be made available on the NHS.
Jackie Fletcher, national co-ordinator of Jabs, a support group for children allegedly damaged by vaccines, said Jabs still received inquiries every day from parents who wanted their children to have single injections.
“Parents are determined to actually have a choice, and in some cases it is not a choice they can make easily because of the finances involved,” she said. “If [the government] are concerned about outbreaks of measles, mumps, or rubella then single vaccines should be available on the NHS.”
While there is evidence that some parents are opting for the single jab, it is feared that other children are being left unvaccinated.
The latest figures show that the uptake of MMR is growing again, but the figure of 90.7% among Scotland´s two-year-olds is still below the recommended level of 95% for “herd immunity” to protect the public as a whole. Uptake is especially low in Shetland, at 76.6%, and in the Highlands, at 77.9%.
At the same time, experts are concerned that cases of measles are on the rise: 24 cases of the disease have been confirmed this year in Scotland, the highest level in a decade. Doctors in England have also seen a sharp rise .
Dr Daniel Pennington, a senior lecturer in immunology at Queen Mary´s School of Medicine, University of London, who supports the MMR jab, said that the increased incidence of measles suggested a “good proportion” of people were leaving their children unimmunised.
He said: “At the end of the day, people probably perceive measles not to be quite as dangerous as it actually is, it is a very dangerous disease.
“There is a finite number of people who are killed by measles and also who are brain-damaged by measles.”
Dr Martin Donaghy, medical director of Health Protection Scotland, also pointed out that vaccination was often a “victim of its own success”.
“Over the course of the years, the disease goes away and people naturally don´t see it as a risk,” he said. “But if coverage levels drop, it will come back.” He added: “There may be small outbreaks of measles over the next few years, but we would like to stop that happening by getting kids to come forward for MMR.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said MMR was the safest, most effective way to protect children.
She added: “It is also important to remember that single vaccination would require six injections, as opposed to the two currently given to protect against MMR.
“Further injections would increase trauma to the child and would also leave them exposed to infection for longer periods, potentially leading to more cases of measles, mumps and rubella, which can result in death or serious illness.”
´A friend´s child was fine until she got the MMR´
JOHN Yip, 36, and his wife Karen, 34, who live in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, did not hesitate when it came to their eight-year-old daughter Caitlin having the MMR triple vaccination.
Although she was fine after receiving it, they found the decision with their 14-month-old daughter Allana far more difficult amid the continuing controversy. They eventually paid for her to have single vaccinations through a clinic run by Direct Remedies.
John said: “With Allana, we were humming and hawing over should we get the triple vaccine in one shot or just get it done singly. We thought about the idea and spoke to a lot of friends and they said MMR was OK. We also have family who are physicians and they said MMR was OK. But then we spoke to a friend and he said his daughter was fine until she got the MMR and then she basically had behaviour problems. They wished she had had the single vaccines, instead of giving her the MMR triple jab.
“Obviously, the government say they have done research and all that and it is safe. They tell you all this, but my friend said as soon as his daughter had that MMR, then that is when the behavioural problems started.
“I know that people might think it is a couple of hundred pounds and that´s a lot of money. It´s a lot of money if you haven´t got it, but if you have got the money then I think you may as well. It´s not like buying something you can just throw away, you have got that burden for the rest of your life.
“Allana just received her mumps vaccination last Sunday. She had measles six weeks before that and then she will have rubella in July . What really hit it home for us is that when we were there, there was a paramedic who was also taking his daughter for the single vaccine.
“I don´t think parents´ confidence has been restored in the MMR jab. GPs say you are better off with the combined vaccine, but obviously they can´t go the other way and say anything else, because then they are doubting everybody else and the government.
“In Europe, you can get the single vaccines, but I read that here they say it wasn´t commercially viable. I think parents should have the choice - the government are not saying it is down to money, but it is.”
18 June 2006
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