Epidemic fear over single jabs

More than 70 children have been booked in for the session

The first clinic in Sussex to offer single vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella opened on Sunday.

But a Brighton care trust has warned that using the single jabs could lead to epidemics among children.

The inoculations are being offered at the Holistic Health Clinic in Beaconsfield Road, Brighton, as an alternative to the triple MMR vaccine.

More than 70 children from Brighton and Hove are booked in for the session which has been organised by the private healthcare company Healthchoice UK.

Birth defects

Company director Kathryn Dunford said: "There has been a high demand for these vaccinations in the area and having such a large number attending the first clinic is quite surprising.

"It shows there is a lot of concern in Sussex about the MMR vaccine."

But a spokesman for Brighton and Hove Primary Care Trust, said: "Using single vaccines means six separate injections have to be given over a long period of time, and this will lead to a fall in vaccine coverage.

"This is because children may not complete the course of injections and even children who complete the course are left without protection in the gaps between injections.

Low take-up

"If children are not fully protected against measles, mumps and rubella, we run the risk of new epidemics.

"This means not just measles outbreaks but the return of babies born with terrible defects from congenital rubella syndrome or children hospitalised or becoming deaf from mumps."

According to Healthchoice UK the take-up rate for MMR vaccinations in Brighton and Hove is about 72% which is one of the lowest in the South East.

The figure for the rest of East Sussex is 79% and in West Sussex it is 88%.