MMR jab 'safest and best option'

There is a shortage of measles vaccine

Northern Ireland's chief medical officer has urged parents to continue to get their children immunised with the MMR triple vaccine.

It emerged on Friday that demand for the single measles vaccine in the UK is so high that companies which import it are having trouble meeting their orders.

The Medicines Control Agency has reported that last year - even before the latest controversy over the three-in-one MMR jab - there was a nine-fold increase in orders for the individual vaccine.

Speaking at a news conference in Belfast on Friday, Dr Etta Campbell said the MMR vaccine was "the safest and best option to protect children against measles, mumps and rubella".

Etta Campbell: "Triple vacine offers best protection"

"There is no scientific evidence to support giving three separate vaccines at defined intervals," she added.

The message was earlier underlined by the province's principal medical officer Dr Liz Mitchell, who said giving the vaccines separately may be more harmful than MMR.

"I've heard many people express the viewpoint over the last week or so that surely offering the single vaccine wouldn't do any harm," she said.

"But our view is that it is the second best option and in fact it might do quite a lot of harm - because these diseases would come back."

'Child regressed'

She said there would not be the same uptake and that children waiting between for a further vaccine would be exposed to the risk of disease.

Meanwhile, a Belfast doctor has said he is to offer single vaccines because of public fears over MMR.

Dr Finbar Magee said he had been as sceptical as anyone else at the start of the debate.

I would suggest these parents are more experienced than some of the professionals

Dr Finbar Magee

However, he said parents had come into his practice and said they were definite their child regressed after getting the MMR vaccine.

"These mothers may have already raised two to four children - so they are not exactly inexperienced - and I would suggest they are more experienced than some of the professionals who are saying there is no link."

'Autism'

Dr Magee said he hoped to start administering the vaccines within the next six to eight weeks.

He has sourced the single vaccines in Britain, France and the United States through a Scottish distributor. Each vaccine will cost about £45.

The clinic has a waiting list of 50 parents.

Demand for the single vaccine is so high that clinics are reporting a worldwide shortage.

And conversely the take-up of the MMR vaccine is down, latest figures indicate.

This is despite moves by the government to allay fears about the safety of the controversial combined vaccine.

The MMR vaccine has been linked to autism and bowel disorders but the medical establishment says such a link does not exist.