MMR: miracle cure or dangerous cocktail?

Very difficult questions - I have had nearly 35 years of 'front-line action' as a GP talking this through with parents. I always allowed them the final decision after a frank and honest discussion. I tried never to add pressure or fear to affect results. So I'll just add one or two points to this debate:

Fact: No country in the world recommends that the MMR be divided and given in single doses. The vaccination schedule necessary to effect as good an immunity protection as the MMR scheme, would lead to a span of some two years between the first and the last injection. During that time children would be exposed to risk of serious infections from these diseases.

Fact: A report from the Working Party on MMR- set up in 1998 by the Committee on Safety of Medicines - reviewed the suggested link between MMR vaccination and autism/Crohn's Disease. 92 children with suspected autism and 15 with suspected Crohn's disease were examined in detail. Parents were interviewed, GP medical records considered and at least one specialist caring for each child was interviewed.

A second study - looked at Autism in the North Thames region over a 15 year period from 1979 that spanned the introduction of the MMR Vaccination (1988) This investigated the history of all 498 known autistic children born in this period. The findings in both studies were:

• No increase in autism with the introduction of MMR in 1998
• No difference in age of diagnosis between MMR immunised and un-immunised children No difference in the MMR immunisation rates between the children with autism and the general population
• No link between the timing of MMR and the onset of autism. No causal links were found.