28 Sept 2001

MMR Vaccine worries

As a father of a twelve month old child, I am naturally concerned about the potential risks of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. My wife was a special needs teacher, and knows the affects of autism on both the child and family. On Monday (24th September 2001), a news report regarding MMR was broadcast on Radio 4's Today programme. This coincided with the arrival of our daughter's appointment for the vaccine. As parents, who should we believe? What are the real facts?

According to BBC News there is nothing to worry about. Researchers have found that the worries are unfounded. Also, the effectiveness of giving the vaccines singularly hasn't been tested. In fact New Scientist reports that the single vaccines are "untested, unlicensed therapy that could risk their health." As a parent, the options are clear, but the facts seemed muddled. Have the MMR vaccine, and protect your child from some dangerous diseases, running the risk of damaging your child in one way or the other. Or, have a set of single jabs yearly, reducing the risk of autism but raising the risk of the child getting measles, mumps or rubella.

The link between autism and MMR was first postulated in 1998 when Andrew Wakefield published a study of 12 children who had all developed autism within 14 days of being given MMR. The claims have been rejected ever since, but that didn't stop parents from worrying. The general public just doesn't trust government statements on such matters any more.

When new tests were performed that refuted Wakefield's claims, they were criticised for only checking for autism up to six months after MMR had been given. Now, the data has been checked again, and again found no link.

After looking at the above as parents, we decided to go ahead with the vaccination. Whilst there may be a link between MMR and autism, the link is unproven. Further more, if there is a link, it must be a rare occurrence for MMR to lead to autism. This year, 87.0% of all British children had MMR (and this is a drop from when it was first introduced). Current figures indicate that autism now occurs in 1 in 500 children. Whilst autism is on the increase, there could be many other reasons for this.

Compare to the dangers of measles, mumps or rubella. If a child catches measles then there is a 1 in 5000 chance they will die. Death is not the only risk. Encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, can leave a child brain damaged. Now that vaccination figures are below the required level to stop an outbreak, there is a real risk involved here.

My daughter is due to have the MMR vaccine on 10th October. The outcome will be seen here.

14 Feb 2002

Update

Given the recent escalation of worries concerning MMR in the UK, I feel a small update is necessary, despite this part of the web site being out of action.

On the first visit to have her MMR jab, my daughter wasn't very well, and the nurse administering advised against her having it. We waited two weeks before returning and then the injection was performed. We are happy to say that she had very little reaction to the injection and was back to her "normal self" in less that 24 hours. She is now seventeen months old, and has yet to display any autistic tendencies, although this is no guarantee that there will not be future problems.

One of her friends contracted Measles despite having had the jab a short time before, and was quite seriously ill. He did make a full recovery. MMR doesn't guarantee complete immunity from measles, so parents are reliant on there being no outbreak to be sure there children don't get the illness. Without the MMR jab, the risk of an outbreak is much higher.

categories Personal : Health

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MMR Vaccine worries

Update