Letter: More measles jabs?

Sir: The Department of Health booklet on measles and vaccination brought home from school by my children states that 'for one in 10 school-age children the single measles or MMR injection was not enough'. This leaves me confused.

Ninety-three per cent of children have been vaccinated against measles and if one injection was enough for nine out of 10, in other words, if the vaccine is 90 per cent efficient, why is a measles epidemic expected? Either the vaccine has worked or it hasn't. If it hasn't, why are we doing it again, and if it has, why are we re-vaccinating the 90 per cent who don't need it?

And if the vaccine offers protection for only a few months or a few years, are we condemning our children to a lifetime of regular vaccination, whether they need it or not, against an illness which is normally mild in childhood but can have serious complications for teenagers and adults?

Yours faithfully,

MADELINE EVANS

York

1 October