Bernard Allen
Ceist:318 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on the situation where some parents are sending their children to have the measles vaccines administered individually in the United Kingdom. [27748/01]
Vol. 543 No. 5
318 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on the situation where some parents are sending their children to have the measles vaccines administered individually in the United Kingdom. [27748/01]
319 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on the situation where general practitioners are being forced to import measles vaccines. [27749/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 318 and 319 together.
The purpose of the primary childhood immunisation programme is to protect the child population against a range of potentially serious infectious diseases. 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. The MMR vaccine has been demonstrated to be both safe and effective. 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.