MMR - what people say

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MMR - what people say

MMR - what medical experts say

"WHO strongly supports the use of MMR vaccine on the grounds of its convincing record of safety and efficacy." (World Health Organisation Statement, January 2001).

"We wished to inform you of this as a means of offering you and your colleagues support in remaining firm in supporting the continued use of this highly effective vaccine which has such an outstanding safety record." (Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Ralph Henderson, letter to DoH, March 1998)

'I think if the government were to re-think the whole vaccine strategy and turn to single vaccines, I think it would be a retrograde step. I think that the whole vaccination programme would just go into auto self-destruct.' (Dr Vas Novelli, Consultant in Infectious Diseases, Great Ormond Street Hospital, BBC News 6/2/02)

"As far as it is possible to demonstrate, there is no proven link between MMR vaccine and autism or bowel disease and the risks of non-vaccination do outweigh the risks of vaccination. Many health professionals remember the last vaccine scare about the whooping cough vaccine (Pertussis), which resulted in a new whooping cough outbreak in the early 1980's, followed by a rapid uptake of the vaccine again." (National Childbirth Trust Pregnancy and Childcare website)

"Using separate vaccines is an untried and untested policy and, as far as protecting children from infectious disease is concerned, a backward step." (Child health consultant, Professor David Elliman - Daily Mirror - 24/09/01)

A major US conference reported in the influential American medical journal Pediatrics last year concluded that:

- 'Although the possible association with MMR vaccine has received much public and political attention and there are many who have derived their own conclusions based on personal experiences, the available evidence does not support the hypothesis that MMR vaccine causes autism or associated disorders.'

- 'Separate administration of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines to children provides no benefit over administration of the combination MMR vaccine and would result in delayed or missed immunisations.'

MMR - what the people you know say

Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association, writer and broadcaster:

"The problem with MMR is that it is given at an age when children are being exposed to all the infections in their world. It is absolutely normal for small children to pick up all sorts of conditions, most of which they get over. Sadly, there are some they develop which they don't get over so quickly. The fact that MMR is given at, or very close to, the same time that these conditions arise, does not mean to say that MMR has caused them. It is coincidental.

All the evidence we have at present indicates that giving MMR is safer than not giving it for a child's health and wellbeing and, indeed, life."

Dr. Chris Steele, GP, Resident doctor -'This Morning' ITV, father of four:

"I don't think I've spent more time studying any medical topic than the MMR vaccine and it's safety. So many of my patients have asked me about whether they should or should not have their children vaccinated against MMR. My opinion is based on extensive assessment of the available evidence, and my own experience as a GP of 32 years standing.

Most people today have not seen the consequences of getting mumps or measles or the drastic consequences of rubella on the newborn baby. From my early days as a GP, I remember seeing the real dangers of measles - deafness, pneumonia, convulsions, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and the terrible complications of rubella in pregnancy - a baby born totally blind, or deaf, mentally retarded and with congenital heart defects.

Don't ever forget that measles still causes 1.5million deaths worldwide

every year, and mumps was once the commonest cause of meningitis. On the evidence we have to date the dangers of these once horrific diseases far outweighs the side effects of the vaccine. The message is clear, get injected - not infected!!"

Dr Miriam Stoppard, GP & Agony Aunt (Daily Mirror):

"Most parents don't realise that when we vaccinate our babies we don't just protect our own, we protect all other babies. If the number of vaccinated babies drops below 95% as it now has, measles can escape into communities. Epidemics loom. Last year one broke out in Dublin and three children died. Immunisation is vital to every growing child to make sure the immune system is strengthened.

"There's no evidence of a proven link between MMR and autism. The MMR vaccination is considered safe by more than 90 countries, including all the EU, America, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand. It's among the safest and most effective ever developed and has been given to hundreds of millions of people world-wide with no ill effects. It's the most widely researched vaccine ever developed. In my opinion, any suggested link with autism is merely coincidental, so it should not be used as a reason not to vaccinate.

"We shun vaccination at our peril. My advice to all parents is to continue to vaccinate - the risk of not using this vaccine far outweighs any possible known side-effects. I give that advice with my hand on my heart. In the early Seventies, when my four sons were babies, the scare was about the association (again) of whooping cough vaccine and encephalitis: I went ahead and vaccinated my sons. Today I would vaccinate them with MMR."