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Immunisation

Throughout our lives we are open to infeciton and immunisation is one way of limiting the spread of many serious diseases.

Recommendations by the department of Health for vaccines state that the following injections should be given to children.

MMR Vaccine scare

Recent reports about the safety of the MMR vaccine - which could lead to a potential outbreak of measles in schools - are said to be unproven, according to the British Medical Journal.

They say that some parents and health workers are confused and anxious about these reports.

The BMJ claims that since the vaccine was licensed 30 years ago, 250 million doses in over 40 countries have been studied and the safety of the vaccine has been confirmed.

Indeed, government figures for 1999-2000 showed that in the north west, 88.3 per cent of 24-month old children had been immunised with the MMR vaccine.

Adverse reactions to the vaccine such as convulsions have been rare and there have been no cases of autism or inflammatory bowel disease related to the vaccine.

Flu

In May 2000, Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced that the flu vaccine would be on offer to anyone over the age of 65, with a target of 70 per cent of people to be immunised.

The vaccine is recommended for people of any age with any conditions which are likely to put them at a greater risk of infection.

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