THE paramount matter in most parents' minds is the safety and health of their children.

So we can understand the concerns of parents in Bolton and Bury when unsubstantiated reports linking MMR vaccinations to autism and bowel disorders are given exposure by the national media.

Unfortunately, what is heralded in the tabloids and on television as the latest 'health scare' may have little foundation or substance.

Medical experts, including Britain's Chief Medical Officer, have investigated the recent claims which surround the three-in-one jabs to immunise babies against mumps, measles and rubella.

They have dismissed them.

Their investigations show there is no link with the injections and children developing serious illnesses.

Parents have to make up their own minds when faced with medical decisions concerning their children.

It is to be hoped that before doing so they evaluate the evidence provided by medical specialists.

Yes, it is hard to ignore or discount the scaremongering of others but what is a cast iron fact is that the vaccinations given to young children do prevent them from contracting serious diseases which can kill.

We have seen the effects of widespread epidemics. The outbreak of Whooping Cough in the 1970s infected more than 800,000 people and killed 70.

Robert Aston, Bolton's leading specialist on communicable diseases, predicts other similar outbreak of such diseases if parents refuse to have their offspring vaccinated.

And sadly that isn't a scare - it's a fact!

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