Percentage of parents vaccinating their children with the MMR jab is on rise, but still not enough says WHO
The proportion of children being given the MMR vaccination rose last year.
Across England 88.2% of children had at least one measles, mumps and rubella inoculation before their second birthday. This has increased by 3.3% since last year, but is still considerably short of the 95% target set by the World Health Organisation.
Interestingly, in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, their figures show 92% of children have been immunised with the MMR jab.
There was major concern about the MMR vaccination programme in 1998 when Dr Andrew Wakefield published a scientific paper linking MMR to autism and Crohn's Disease. Many parents decided not to give their child the MMR vaccine, some opting for paying for single doses of each vaccine, while others chose not to vaccinate at all. This led to an all-time low MMR uptake of 79.9% in 2003/04.
Dr Wakefield's paper has since been discredited and the other scientists working with him have acknowledged the results were flawed and faulty, The advice is to give children their first MMR injection from 13 months and then a booster jab from 6 months later.
