London fails vaccine test

The MMR debate has put some parents off the vaccine

Action is needed to reverse falling levels of immunisation in London, according to London Assembly members.

The number of children being vaccinated in the city has been steadily falling since 1996, according to a London Assembly report.

Only 73% of London's two-year-olds have had the MMR vaccine and just 88% have been immunised against polio, compared to the national averages of 85% and 94%.

And the gap is widening according to assembly members who are calling for action to reverse the trend.

Immunisation levels have been steadily falling

Health committee chairman Elizabeth Howlett said: "We must do everything possible to reverse this trend and protect Londoners from disease."

Infant immunisation levels are lower in inner London areas such as Southwark, where five children caught measles in an outbreak last year.

The lowest immunisation levels were in Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster where 60.9% of two-year-olds had received their jabs and in Bexley and Greenwich where just 64.8% of five-year-olds were immunised.

A mobile population, areas of deprivation and a lack of public confidence in the MMR vaccine are possible reasons for London's poor performance.

The assembly is asking the Department of Health to put a 'recall' system in place to stop children missing out on immunisation.

Parents' choice

It also wants to ensure people moving to London have been immunised and to encourage GPs to meet targets.

But Brenda Irons, from the London Directorate of Health and Social Care, part of the Department of Health, said it was a difficult problem to tackle.

She said: "All health services are trying to reverse this trend.

"But you can't force people to get their children immunised, you can only encourage them, which is what we are trying to do."