The option to give measles, mumps and rubella vaccine singly rather than combined in the MMR vaccine has been rejected by the Director of Public Health with the Eastern Regional Health Authority.
Dr Marie Laffoy was responding to the results of the Irish Times/MRBI poll earlier this week which showed 72 per cent of people not in favour of a combined MMR vaccine would give their children a single measles shot. Of those polled, 78 per cent said they would bring a child for MMR, but figures for the Dublin area show an uptake as low as 59 per cent.
Referring to the single vaccine option, Dr Laffoy said: "This proposal is not supported by scientific evidence. By adopting this approach, we would leave our children exposed to acquiring measles, mumps and rubella infection for much longer periods and the potentially devastating complications of these diseases".
She also referred to a World Health Organisation recommendation not to use single vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella. "Using combination vaccine \ we have the ability to protect against more diseases with fewer injections and less pain for the child. There is no evidence of any benefit of giving vaccines separately", she said.
Addressing the issue of a possible link between MMR vaccine and autism, Dr Laffoy said it was important to note that the controversial Wakefield study did not prove an association between MMR and an autistic syndrome.
She referred in particular to the Taylor study of 498 cases of autism, which, she said, "provides persuasive evidence against the hypothesis that the MMR vaccine may cause autistic regression or exacerbate autistic symptoms".
Dr Brent Taylor of the Royal Free Hospital in London reported he could find no temporal relationship between immunisation with MMR and the onset of autism.
Dr Laffoy declined to comment on possible infrastructural difficulties which may have led to a low uptake in the Eastern Region. Nor did she wish to comment on the 28 per cent discrepancy in MMR vaccination rates between the South Eastern Health Board and parts of Dublin.