[e-drug] Parents favour single jabs for their children

["HAI Africa" <ceradeny@africaonline.co.ke>]

E-drug: Parents favour single jabs for their children
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Dear List Members,
Here is an interesting article from "The Guardian Weekly".

Enos.
HAI Africa

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Parents Favor Single Jabs for their Children

February 21 2002
The Guardian
By Alan Travis

Atleast 75% of parents say they now want government to provide free separate
measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations for their children, amid rising
concerns about the combined MMR injection, according to the results of the
February Guardian/ICM opinion poll.
The poll finding suggests that anxiety over the combined injection has
become so deep-seated that there is now an overwhelming demand for free
separate jab to be made available by the National Health service, and many
more parents would opt for them if they were easily available through their
local doctor.
The results show that ministers are losing the battle to dispel the
anxieties of parents over the safety of MMR vaccine.
The ICM poll uncovers the scale of the problem facing ministers. Although
73% of parents with young children say they would choose the MMR jab, a
growing minority, some 19% of parents with children under five, are so
worried about the combined vaccine's unproven link with autism that they are
prepared to pay for separate injections, even if the cost is several hundred
pounds.
This finding confirms reports that requests from parents for single measles,
mumps and rubella vaccines have risen so sharply since Christmas that they
now face waits of up to six months at private clinics.
What is likely to cause even more concern to health ministers are the 4% of
parents with young children who say they will not get their children
inoculated against any of the three diseases.
The 73% of parents who told the pollsters that, in the absence of any freely
available alternative, they would be willing to allow their children to have
the MMR injection falls far short of the 95% target for take-up set by the
Department of Health as the minimum needed to guarantee general immunity in
the population.
Only 20% say they "trust a lot" advice from politicians and officials; 47%
say they would trust it "a little"; and 30% say they would disregard it
altogether.
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Health Action International (HAI)
Africa Coordinating Office
Musa Gitau Road, Off Waiyaki Way
P.O. Box 73860, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254-2-444.835
Fax: 254-2-440306
E-mail: ceradeny@africaonline.co.ke
Website: www.haiweb.org
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