Top doctors urge parents to give children the vaccine

Thirty of Britain's most respected paediatricians have issued an appeal calling for parents to support the MMR programme and have their children vaccinated. IN an open letter, the doctors call for MPs, doctors and journalists to 'draw a line under the question of any association between MMR and autism' in the light of an 'overwhelming body' of evidence that shows the vaccine is safe.

The experts made their decision to issue the letter fearing that children's lives were being put at risk by parents deciding not to vaccinate them. 'We are now faced with a potentially serious situation,' they say. 'Years of low uptake mean large numbers of unprotected children are now entering school. Unless this is rectified urgently, and children are immunised, there will be further outbreaks and we will see more unnecessary deaths. It is not too late to avert this predictable tragedy. It is time that due weight is given to the overwhelming body of scientific evidence in favour of the vaccine.'

There are still voices of dissent; Jackie Fletcher, founder of pressure group JABS said that there were still questions to be answered. 'Some of these doctors are responsible for epidemiological studies that have looked at data and concluded MMR is safe. But we have been asking for almost 10 years - and were promised by a former health minister - that there would be a clinical study of the children, and we're still waiting.

'I would like to see the energies of these doctors put into examining these children, with a scientific investigation that would finally give the parents some answers.'

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