Assembly Health Committee to hear expert opinions on MMR

The Vice Chair of the Assembly's Health Committee has welcomed proposals for detailed discussions on the MMR vaccinations.

SDLP MLA Tommy Gallagher said that this had become a "hugely important issue" as many parents were concerned by the recent publicity about the vaccine.

The Health Committee is to invite a number of health experts to attend the committee and to provide information about the issue, which, he said, would "provide reassurance on this matter".

Earlier in the week, as fears of a serious measles outbreak grew, Dr Richard Smithson, chair of Northern Ireland’s Independent Advisory Group on Vaccinations, urged parents to help keep this serious and potentially fatal disease out of Northern Ireland.

Dr Smithson said: "At the moment, we are in a relatively good position because our uptake rates for MMR have stayed fairly high. Whilst we have seen a slight fall recently this has not been nearly as bad as parts of England, where there are now serious concerns about possible measles outbreaks."

While the latest figures show uptake of the vaccine is just over 90 per cent in the province, Dr Smithson said he wanted to see MMR uptake increased as uptake needed to be over 95 per cent to effectively prevent outbreaks spreading.

He warned: "Measles can be a very serious disease. Already in London, where there has just been a small outbreak so far, one child had to be admitted to intensive care."

During an outbreak in 2000 in Dublin, over 100 children were admitted to hospital and there were two fatalities. However, seeking to reassure parents, Dr Smithson added: "Because of our high uptake of vaccine, measles has not spread in Northern Ireland for several years now but, if we let these levels fall, there is no doubt that it will return and children here may well die from it."

Dr Smithson said: "The overwhelming majority of independent experts remained convinced that MMR was a safe and effective vaccine. Even those people who have suggested that MMR may cause autism have not done any research to show that giving single vaccines would be any safer. There is far more evidence about the safety of MMR than there is about the single vaccines."

(SP)