MMR scare has led to huge slump in child immunisation

Parents are turning away from immunisation as a means of protecting their children against diseases after the scare over the MMR vaccine.

Official figures published yesterday by the Department of Health show that national immunisation rates have fallen across the board as confidence in vaccination has ebbed away.

For the first time in nine years, vaccination rates against diphtheria, tetanus and polio have dropped below the 95 per cent level judged necessary to provide "herd" immunity to the population.

Vaccination rates against pertussis (whooping cough) and haemophilus influenza b, which can cause meningitis, also fell last year. But the biggest fall was in the uptake of the MMR vaccine, down 3 percentage points on the previous year to 84 per cent.

The only exception to the overall downward trend was in the new meningitis C vaccine, introduced in 2000, where the take-up rate was up 1 point at 89 per cent.

A spokesman for the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) said the alarm should not yet be sounded over falling immunisation rates but there were clear signs of a general retreat. He said: "It is not in doubt that anxiety over MMR has had a knock-on effect. There are a few parents who may decline or delay other vaccinations because of their worries over MMR."

He added: "It was also hard to sustain high uptake as people became complacent when diseases were banished from the community."

National coverage against MMR is now 8 points lower than its peak of 92 per cent achieved in 1995-96. The worst hit area is London where the lowest rate is 64 per cent in Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster, according to the latest quarterly figures from the PHLS. An outbreak of measles in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham earlier this year, where the MMR vaccination rate is 71 per cent, led to warnings that further outbreaks in the capital could be expected.

Parents began deserting MMR after the publication of controversial research in 1998 led by Adrian Wakefield, formerly of the Royal Free Hospital, which linked MMR with bowel disease and autism.

No other research group has been able to confirm the link and the consensus of scientific opinion is that MMR is safe. But reassurances from the Government have failed to stem the slide in confidence, which is now spreading to other vaccines.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said: "Today's figures show that uptake at aged 2 for most vaccines in the childhood immunisation programme remains close to 95 per cent, which is very encouraging. This is the World Health Organisation recommended target for working towards the worldwide elimination of these diseases.

"Uptake figures of just below this target will not have any significant effect on levels of protection in the community."

Dr David Brown, of the PHLS, who reviewed all 51 cases in the measles outbreak in London earlier this year, said: "The findings do suggest that we are getting to a stage where we are going to see more extensive transmission of measles and that is worrying."