Leading Article

Drawing sensible conclusions

That MMR vaccination is safe is the opinion of nearly every leading medical expert in the United Kingdom, including the chief medical officers and the chairmen of the Committee on Safety of Medicines, the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation and the British Medical Association (p71). And yet certain sections of the media continue to report otherwise, leaving parents, and possibly health professionals, quite understandably confused.

It is easy to forget in the developed world of the 21st century just how devastating the illnesses that vaccines were developed to protect us from can be. Since 1990, no deaths have occurred in the UK from measles. In the last year before MMR vaccination was introduced, there were 16 deaths. Mumps was the leading cause of viral meningitis in children under the age of 15 and rubella caused devastating damage to unborn children. In order to prevent a recurrence of these illnesses, vaccination is needed. This was proved in the 1970s when similar scaremongering over the safety of pertussis vaccine resulted in a large fall in vaccine coverage and, consequently, three epidemics and 70 deaths from whooping cough.

The fact that there is a wide variation in knowledge and practice relating to MMR vaccination among health professionals has also been highlighted this week (p71). It is worrying that a large number of health professionals either do not know about or do not use available resources on immunisation. Methods of disseminating information need to be reviewed so that all health professionals have the most current information with which to advise parents seeking vaccination for their children. Without such information, neither health professionals nor parents can reach a balanced decision on the best approach for treatment.

Some parents seek single component vaccines for their children but these are not easily available in the UK and there are doubts over their safety. It is therefore questionable whether pharmacists should be supplying these vaccines at all.

It is a natural instinct to seek explanations for the causes of all illnesses, including autism and bowel disorders. As scientists, we should keep an open mind about suggested theories but we should also remain sceptical when supporting evidence is lacking.

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