Mark Hookham Looks At The New Row Over Vaccinations, Daily Post
THE furore over the MMR jab has started to fade, but a new multiple jab will pose parents with yet more agonising decisions.
The five-in-one Pediacel vaccine, which will be injected at the age of two months, will protect children against diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hib and polio.
Details of the new combined vaccination were revealed by the Department of Health after it was announced that mercury was to be removed from the whooping cough vaccine. This follows fears it could cause autism.
Its removal has been universally welcomed as being long overdue.
The Government also says the new vaccine will remove the tiny risk that children could contract polio paralysis from the current oral vaccine which contains a live sample of the virus which causes the disease. The new vaccine will contain an inactivated form of the virus.
However, fears are mounting among parents and health campaigners that the new jab will overload the immune system of babies, increasing the danger of autism and other brain disorders.
They make the point that, by the age of five, children will have had up to 32 different toxins, viruses and bacteria injected into them.
The growing controversy could become as damaging to public confidence as the row over the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
MMR was linked to autism in a study headed by Dr Andrew Wakefield. But the study has been denounced as scaremongering.
The row left anger among campaigners, wide-spread confusion among parents and exasperation among GPs as the number of children vaccinated began to fall.
* Read the cases for and against combined vaccinations and then tell us what you think on the DEBATE MESSAGEBOARD
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