Clinic offering MMR alternative is inundated

2:00pm Thursday 8th March 2007

A private clinic is receiving hundreds of requests for single vaccinations against the childhood diseases measles. mumps and rubella.

Direct Health 200 is holding a clinic in Brighton on Saturday for parents wanting to have their child innoculated with separate injections instead of the triple MMR jab.

The increased demand follows rports in a national newspaper that a Russian child who had been developing normally began to have serious speech and psychological problems after being given the MMR vaccine.

The Department of Health insists the vaccine is safe but some people still believe there is a possible link between the vaccine and autism.

The scare was sparked in 1998 when Andrew Wakefield published an article in the Lancet, alleging the link.

His findings have since been publicly discredited but some parents still remain unconvinced and say the single vaccinations should be available on the NHS as well as the MMR jab.

Direct Health chief executive Sarah Dean said she was not surprised to see the MMR vaccination was causing problems.

She said: "It is impossible for the government to state categorically there is no link to autism from the MMR vaccinations.

"We have always argued that you cannot make someone autistic but that the MMR vaccination appears to trigger it in some people."

The Brighton clinic will be held at the Thistle Hotel in Kings Road.

For more details call 0870 2000 999.