This article is from page 28 of the 2008-11-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 28 JPG
AN INCREASE in the number of cases of mumps reported this year has led to questions about the suc- cess of the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccination programme.
There has been an estimated 800 cases in Ireland this year.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) continues to monitor the growing number.
Almost 60 per cent of reported cases are in the 10 to 24 year age group.
Mostindividuals affected by mumps either never received or received just one dose of MMR vaccine.
The up take of MMR vaccine is not
even at 90 per cent in Ireland. Na- tionally the uptake is at 89 per cent with a larger up take in the mid-west at 91 per cent.
Despite the higher uptake in the Clare area it is still not high enough to render the population immune.
“If you have a 95 per cent uptake in the vaccine you have herd immunity as it does not replicate,” explained Dr Rose Fitzgerald, Specialist in Public health Medicines.
‘There is a possibly only 80 to 90 per cent of the population covered,’ she said.
The MMR vaccine has a history of bad publicity as question marks re- mained over the vaccine following the Wakefield report.
In 1998, British gastroenterologist Dr Andrew Wakefield published a pa- per suggesting a possible association between childhoods MMR immu- nisation, bowel disease and autism. The Lancet, one of the world’s top medical journals, published Wake- field’s study. Later, however, they called the study “fatally flawed.”
Since 2001 the number receiving the vaccine has increased as the re- port according to Dr Fitzgerald was discredited.
In 2001 less than 70 per cent of the population were receiving the vac- cine, but the number is now up to 89 per cent nationally and 91 per cent for the mid-west.
The history of the MMR vaccine
dates back to the rubella vaccine given to girls in the 1970s. A vaccine against mumps was given to boys.
In 1985 a measles only vaccine was introduced. By 1988 it was decided to combine all of the vaccines and give them to both genders.
In 1992 it was decided to give a sec- ond MMR vaccination to children at two years of age instead of the rubel- la vaccine for girls. In 2001 the age of the second or booster vaccine was changed to four or five years of age.
“If you give 100 per cent of the population MMR 90 per cent will be effective,” explained Dr Fitzgerald.
“By giving the second one (injec- tion) you get 90 per cent of the 10 per cent which is 99 per cent coverage.
You will still have one per cent not covered.”
The HSE face the difficulty that they do no know what per centage of the population have had both inocu- lations.
“IN the early days of the MMR in 1988 it was a new vaccine and did not have a very good record so we don’t know how many are covered,’ said Dr Fitzgerald.
In 2007 142 cases of mumps were recorded, 427 in 2006 and 1079 cas- es in 2005 which was due to a na- tionwide outbreak that year. Several mumps outbreaks have been notified in third level colleges and in schools, both primary and second-level this year.