Parents rush for separate vaccines

A PRIVATE hospital in Scotland plans to set up a clinic offering separate jabs for measles, mumps and rubella after a tenfold increase in demand for single vaccines in Scotland.

Dr Peter Copp, who runs the GP Plus clinic providing most of Scotland’s separate vaccines, said demand has soared in the wake of the latest controversy over MMR.

It also emerged last night that the massive increase in demand for individual jabs has led to the UK’s biggest importer of the single dose vaccines running out of supplies. The crisis at IDIS World Medicines (IWM) follows renewed scares over MMR.

In Scotland, Dr Copp is in discussions with the HCI hospital in Clydebank over plans to establish a service to cater for the patients currently forced to travel to Edinburgh from the west of Scotland for the jabs.

Dr Copp said: "We are in talks with the HCI and from our point of view we would see it as a good thing to do as it would offer people in the west easier access to single jabs."

He said the number of parents confirming they want to pay 250 for three separate jabs for their children at the GP Plus clinic has rocketed to 2,400 this month from the normal level of 210-240, leading to a "logistical crisis".

The rise follows new research linking MMR to bowel problems in autistic children - and the Prime Minister’s failure to give an explicit statement about whether his youngest son, Leo, has had the vaccine.

Dr Copp said: "The level of interest has gone stratospheric. Numbers are usually very steady, between 210 to 240, but in the past week or two there has been a phenomenal number of confirmations where parents have committed themselves to giving their children the single jabs course - a tenfold rise. We have never seen this level of intensity."

As concern grew over growing clusters of measles south of the Border, the numbers of new cases of the disease in Scotland this week rose to ten from six last week. Four cases were in the Greater Glasgow area. There have been 19 cases so far this year compared to 15 at the same time last year.

Jack McConnell, the First Minister, yesterday urged Scottish parents to keep using the controversial MMR triple vaccine. He acknowledged many parents were worried about the jab, and called for a "sane and rational" public debate on the matter, saying the available evidence pointed to the safety of the vaccine.

He said he had measles himself in 1967, a year in which 14 children died from measles-related diseases: "It didn’t affect me in the long term, but it did affect a number of others in my age group. That sort of statistic should remind all of us of what the situation used to be".

The measles outbreak worsened yesterday with confirmation of one new case and five suspected cases in Barnet, north London. There are now 11 confirmed cases in south London, along with 18 outstanding cases and seven suspected cases in north-east England.

As the government grew increasingly concerned about the impact of MMR uptake falling, its Chief Medical Officer launched an all-out defence of the vaccine and insisted offering single jabs would amount to "playing Russian roulette" with children’s lives.

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson stressed the facts were "overwhelming" in favour of MMR’s safety. He said single vaccines would have a "disastrous" effect, placing youngsters at greater risk of diseases.

Speculation that MMR could be replaced by a series of individual vaccines was based on "fallacious reasoning" and would return Britain to the "dark ages".

However, the consultant who first voiced fears about MMR in 1998, said it was "unsustainable and reprehensible" of the Department of Health "not to offer parents a choice".

Dr Andrew Wakefield said parental fears of a link between the vaccine and medical problems "have merit" and that there was "genuine ground" for concern.

Amid the rush for single vaccines, a spokeswoman for IWM, based in Surrey, said it hoped to be able to get more supplies within "the next couple of weeks".

She added: "As an importer of single dose vaccines, IWM can confirm that they are, at present, experiencing a shortage in availability through their regular supply channels. They are actively pursuing other sources.

"IWM hopes to be in a position to fulfil all outstanding orders within the next couple of weeks. Parents who are concerned about when they will obtain supplies should contact their prescribing physician or pharmacist."

Neither the company nor the Department of Health would confirm reports that IWM is Britain’s only supplier of the jabs.