Parents attack Blair on MMR job

Three cases have been confirmed and another 22 children with similar symptoms are still being investigated at two nursery schools.

The youngsters live in an area where take-up of the triple measles, mumps and rubella jab has fallen to just 65 per cent, well below the recommended level of 90 per cent which the World Health Organisation says provides "herd immunity" against the three diseases.

The Prime Minister has been criticised for failing to reassure parents over the jab - which some studies have linked to bowel disease and autism - by refusing to confirm whether his son, Leo, has had the MMR vaccination.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister yesterday maintained his "unequivocal" support for the vaccine.

But John Woods, whose two-year-old son, Prem, is among those affected by the current outbreak in Streatham, south London, attacked Mr Blair.

Mr Woods, an accountant, said: "You should practise what you preach. You do what’s best for your children but it is totally hypocritical for him not to say about his own child.

"It is always the cheapest option that the government wants to put up for parents and that is very frustrating as a parent."

The other two children who were diagnosed with measles are aged been three and five. They are recovering from the disease and neither is seriously ill. Neither had received the MMR inoculation.

The health authority concerned - Lambeth Southwark and Lewisham - warned parents of the need to protect their children from the three potentially dangerous childhood diseases.

MMR can protect 90 per cent of all children who have had the first vaccination, while a second dose raises the level of protection from measles to 99 per cent.

The UK-wide take-up of the jab fell to a record low between July and September 2001, with a coverage rate of just 84.2 per cent.

Latest figures suggest it increased to 90 per cent in October-December, although the proportion of Scots children immunised with the triple vaccination is still below the minimum recommended level at 86 per cent.

Public health experts said a cluster of three cases in an area with low MMR uptake was to be expected, but said there would be more concern if the number of confirmed cases continues to rise.

The Department of Health has repeatedly insisted that the combined MMR vaccine, rather than single injections, is the best and most effective way to protect children against measles, mumps and rubella.

There are about 2,000 children throughout Britain who, parents claim, have been adversely affected by the MMR vaccination.

Ann Coote, a founding member of campaign group JABS, which represents parents who believe their children have been damaged by the MMR vaccine, said: "There are two sides to every coin and I think everyone is entitled to their privacy but Tony Blair is not a private person, he is in the public eye.

"He is dictating to us what we should and shouldn’t be doing, so in that case he should be leading us in the route he’s dictating to us.

"It’s not that parents don’t want to immunise - they don’t want to immunise with MMR. They want single vaccines."

Judith Barnard, director of policy and public affairs for the National Autistic Society, last night demanded in-depth research into the possible effects of the MMR vaccine and called on the government to authorise an urgent review of the vaccine programme.

She added: "Parents have a right to protect their children from diseases such as measles.

"The government should make single vaccinations available to those who want them until such time as the necessary research to put people’s minds at rest has been carried out."