Uptake of the MMR vaccine in the State is still almost 25 per cent below target levels despite numerous assurances that it is safe, it emerged yesterday.
The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Mr Brian Lenihan, expressed concern at the low uptake and urged parents to have their children immunised. The vaccine guards against measles, mumps and rubella.
He said the World Health Organisation, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) and the Irish Medicines Board supported its use on the grounds that it had been found to be safe and effective. One study has claimed a link between the MMR vaccine and the onset of autism.
The Childhood Immunisation Programme aims to achieve a 95 per cent uptake. However, the average uptake is 72 per cent, with uptake levels ranging from just 63 per cent in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area to 82 per cent in the Mid-Western and North Eastern Health Board regions.
Mr Lenihan made his comments at the publication of revised immunisation guidelines for children in the State. Changes to the age at which various immunisations are given are among the amendments to the guidelines.
Immunisation against meningitis C is now recommended at two, four and six months of age, as is a recently introduced all-in-one vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus and polio.
In addition, the MMR is now recommended at 12 to 15 months of age and a booster for tetanus and diphtheria is recommended at 12 and 14 years.
The new guidelines have been drawn up by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee of the RCPI. Its chairman, Prof Brian Keogh, said the changes to the immunisation schedule reflected "the continual evolution of vaccines and pervasiveness of infectious disease".
"In Ireland, the benefits of vaccination are clear: with vaccination fewer children develop serious infectious diseases and fewer die from these diseases," said Dr Darina O'Flanagan, director of the National Disease Surveillance Centre and member of the RCPI. "I would urge parents to have their children vaccinated in line with the recommended immunisation schedule," she added.
The guidelines are available on the NDSC website, www.ndsc.ie