What your view on MMR vaccination?

I must say when I have children I would rather pay for the individual jabs.

I had no qualms about the MMR, and my son received it at the allotted time. A few cases of measles in the area afterwards prompted other parents to do the same.

Separate jabs can cost £200 at 'roadshows' that travel up and down the country. Our neighbour had to back and get 3 jabs all over again, because it wasn't done properly 1st time.

The triple vaccine confers faster and better immunity than separate jabs.

However, there is definitely a debate to be had on how much our children are vaccinated, since the quantity of vaccine injected into them in their first 3 years is very large.

I tried for 6 years to get individual vaccinations for my children with no success. I was 'brickwalled' by my GP, the health authority and my MP.

So adamant I was that my children wouldn't have MMR that I waited for 6 years and then finally found a doctor who did the jabs privately. No Phan they weren't done at a roadshow as you suggested. The doctor I used did the jabs on a non profit making basis. He was the original doctor who dared to challenge the system and was hauled before the General Medical Council for his beliefs. Needless to say he was vindicatedand then all the other doctors came out of the woodwork, only too happy to oblige for a large fee.

While ever there is an element of doubt about the safety of MMR (though the authorities would never admit it) parents should have the right to choose triple or single vaccines.

I don't like vaccinations full stop. I believe they have actually halted the human immune system and are in part responsible for the increase of new and more vigorous diseases.

However I am not going to put my family at risk - too late now. So both my children have had their injections including MMR with no adverse side affects.

Moon

My kids had the MMR. The risks from not having your kids immunised is far greater then any theoretical unproven link to autism.

If some parents are still unhappy and want single jabs for their kids then that's fine... just pay for it yourself.

Both my kids have had the MMR and I am safe in the knowledge that they are protected from these diseases. There is risks associated with everything in life! Who are we to deprive our children of the best possible protection?

Originally posted by Zamo
My kids had the MMR. The risks from not having your kids immunised is far greater then any theoretical unproven link to autism.

If some parents are still unhappy and want single jabs for their kids then that's fine... just pay for it yourself.

Zamo, nobody is talking about not having children vaccinated but about having a choice. I would gladly have paid my GP to adminster the single vaccines but that option was not and still is not open.

Mo, I agree it should be easy for parents to pay for single jabs if that's what they want.

I'm suprised that it wasn't more readily available - there's nearly always someone out there trying to make money out of people worries and concerns.

Originally posted by pontious
Both my kids have had the MMR and I am safe in the knowledge that they are protected from these diseases.

How do you know? MMR has a failure rate of around 10%. That is why you are given a booster at 5, in an attempt to catch the ones that did not get immunity first time around.



There is risks associated with everything in life! Who are we to deprive our children of the best possible protection?

You have no proof that this is the best protection. MMR has only been given for the last 15 years, prior to which vaccines were given singly in exactly the same way some of us are asking for now.

I think it is dangeours for the government NOT to have provided options for parents.

Look at the centres that were set up to provide for demand - the vaccines were faulty and now those children are at risk.

The government forced the hands of parents in that.

Moon

Originally posted by Mo
You have no proof that this is the best protection. MMR has only been given for the last 15 years, prior to which vaccines were given singly in exactly the same way some of us are asking for now.
hmm,
from www.doh.gov.uk/mmr/mmrinddex.html
A decision was made to stop using combined MMR vaccine in Japan in 1993 solely on the basis of the mumps component of their home-produced vaccine, which was found to be associated with an unacceptable level of adverse reactions (this mumps component is not in MMR vaccine currently used in the UK). As a result the Japanese stopped recommending routine mumps immunisation. They continue to immunise against measles and rubella but do not currently have a suitable MMR vaccine licensed for use in Japan - such as the MMR vaccine used in the UK. Japan has suffered from endemic and epidemic measles. Between 1992-97, there were 79 measles deaths in Japan, and none in UK. When single measles vaccine was used in the UK before 1988, there were regular epidemics of measles with 10-20 deaths each year. There is no available data on congenital rubella syndrome in Japan. In England and Wales, there was no single case of Congenital Rubella Syndrome between 1997 and 1999, because of MMR vaccine.

Now this is a government website, so it can be expected to be partisan, but if these figures are correct then it would seem to indicate that MMR is superior to giving vaccines singly, now that UK deaths from measles are around 1-2 per year.

Taken from the jabs website (http://www.jabs.org.uk/)


Background notes on MMR and late onset Autism, 14 February 2001

Jackie Fletcher writes:

On the 13 October 1997 Tessa Jowell called together a group which included Sir Kenneth Calman (former Chief Medical Officer), and other senior advisers from the Department of Health, Llew Smith MP, Doctor Andrew Wakefield and Professor Walker-Smith from the London Royal Free Hospital, Richard Barr (Alexander Harris Solicitors) and myself representing the JABS group to discuss the safety problems of the MMR vaccine. I provided a list of over 500 children from around the UK and Richard Barr provided details of some 1200 children to the Health Minister. The information provided demonstrated that:

1) Children who developed autism, epilepsy and other neurological conditions were progressing normally before they were vaccinated, had passed all milestones and had acquired skills appropriate to their age.
2) They did not simply fail to progress; they actually regressed, losing skills which they had already attained. In many instances this is borne out by videos taken of the children before and after they were vaccinated.
3) They showed other physical changes at the time that they became autistic (such as sleep patterns, appetite changes, temperature control etc. in addition to many of them suffering bowel problems).
4) The development of autism and other conditions are closely linked in time to the administration of the vaccine. The onset of this condition generally started within about a month of vaccination whenever the vaccination took place. In other words, it would be later for children vaccinated at 18 months than those vaccinated at 12 months. On top of that, a substantial proportion of the children had an immediate reaction to the vaccination, and the change which came over them dates directly from that reaction.

http://www.jabs.org.uk/pages/information.htm


IMO, MMR is safe for most children but not all. Sadly, neither the govt nor the vaccine manufacturers wish to investigate further and accept responsibility. This forces some parents to choose not between separate jabs and MMR, but between separate jabs and no vaccination at all.

I'd prefer it if the govt gave parents the option of taking separate or the combined vaccine on the NHS, so parents are not forced down the route of using sub-standard 'health professionals' to administer separate vaccines.

Quite a lot of research has been done since then.....

http://www.doh.gov.uk/mmr/index.html#howthe

In short, no independent groups – including those independent of Government and those independent of Dr Wakefield and his colleagues – have been able to confirm Dr Wakefield’s clinical research findings and all have concluded that there is no link between MMR and autism or inflammatory bowel disease.

likewise the problems with giving three single injections twice are touched upon as well as this:http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/embroadcast.nsf/vwDiscussionAll/19E5795D028074F880256D5D00386C78 which makes for depressing reading.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Quite a lot of research has been done since then.....

http://www.doh.gov.uk/mmr/index.html#howthe



likewise the problems with giving three single injections twice are touched upon as well as this:http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/embroadcast.nsf/vwDiscussionAll/19E5795D028074F880256D5D00386C78 which makes for depressing reading.

Phan, surely you must agree that the problems brought out here are those of the practices of the healthstaff and not problems with the single vaccines themselves.