Vol. 535 No. 1
334 Mr. M. Kitt asked the Minister for Health and Children if he has proposals to review the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination scheme to replace it with individual vaccination; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11891/01]
My Department's immunisation policy is based on the advice of the national immunisation committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. The committee recommends that MMR vaccine be administered at 15 months with a booster dose administered at four to five years of age. The committee has advised that the MMR vaccine has been demonstrated to be very safe and effective and it concluded that there was no evidence to discontinue MMR in favour of the separate components of the vaccine.
The MMR vaccine is available free of charge from family doctors under the primary childhood immunisation programme and there is no provision for children to receive separate measles, mumps or rubella vaccinations under this scheme. On the basis of currently available information there is no evidence that giving each of the component vaccines separately has any greater benefit than the combined vaccines. Splitting the MMR vaccine into separate components would involve extra injections for children and would cause both children and the people with whom they come in contact to be exposed to these potentially serious diseases for a much longer period of time.
The information currently available to my Department is that separate measles and mumps vaccines are not available in this country.
The international consensus, including the World Health Organisation, is that the MMR vaccine is safe and effective and this is supported by a number of well-validated studies on this issue.
I would like to take this opportunity to urge parents to have their children immunised with the MMR vaccine in accordance with current recommendations. This will ensure that individual children and the population generally have maximum protection against the diseases concerned. General practitioners are aware of the contraindications to the recommended childhood immunisations and parents should discuss any concerns they may have with their GP before making a decision about their child's immunisation.
