Parents should be offered the option of having their children vaccinated separately for measles, mumps and rubella, according to a consultant who says there is a potential link between the MMR vaccine and autism, a claim strongly rejected by medical authorities.
Dr Andrew Wakefield, consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, who reviewed previous research on the MMR vaccine, writes in the journal Adverse Drug Reactions that there is not "adequate evidence of safety" of the vaccine. Trials were too small and did not follow children up for a long enough period to gauge potential problems, he writes.
There was also evidence more than 20 years ago that combining three live viruses in one jab could be potentially dangerous, the article says. And there were indications that the triple jab is linked to autism and inflammatory bowel disease, despite government reassurances over the vaccine, it concludes.
Until safety concerns are allayed, parents should be offered the choice of either the combined jab or single vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, Dr Wakefield writes. His views have been disputed by authorities in Britain and Ireland, but there has been a fall-off in both countries in the number of children vaccinated against MMR.
That low take-up has been blamed for the outbreak of an epidemic of measles in Dublin a year ago which claimed two lives. While experts consider that a country should aim to vaccinate 95 per cent of children against MMR, the take-up in Ireland is closer to 75 per cent.
The British government recently spoke out against separate vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella, saying that the gap between vaccinations left an opportunity for infections to develop.
The Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children is currently drawing up a report on the issue of vaccination.
pomorain@irish-times.ie