BBC NEWS Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific Chinese Vietnamese Burmese Thai Indonesian
BBCi NEWS   SPORT   WEATHER   WORLD SERVICE   A-Z INDEX     

BBC News World Edition
 You are in: Asia-Pacific  
News Front Page
Africa
Americas
Asia-Pacific
Europe
Middle East
South Asia
UK
Business
Entertainment
Science/Nature
Technology
Health
-------------
Talking Point
-------------
Country Profiles
In Depth
-------------
Programmes
-------------
BBC Sport
BBC Weather
SERVICES
-------------
LANGUAGES
EDITIONS
Friday, 8 February, 2002, 06:49 GMT
Why Japan stopped using MMR
Japanese children swimming
Japanese children are vaccinated later than in the UK
By the BBC's Charles Scanlon in Tokyo

Japan's Health Ministry says the withdrawal of the MMR vaccine for children did not cause an increase in deaths from measles.

It followed UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments this week in which he cited Japan as an example of the dangers of not having the combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.

There is a huge controversy in the UK, with thousands of parents refusing to let their child have the combined MMR injection over fears that it has links to autism and bowel disorders.

But the medical establishment says such a link does not exist, and that the MMR vaccine is far more effective than having separate injections.

Measles epidemics

Japan stopped using MMR because it was linked to outbreaks of non-viral meningitis and other damaging side-effects. Doctors say there were problems with the vaccine which was of a different type to that used in the UK.

They stopped using the MMR vaccine in 1993 and reverted to three separate injections for measles, mumps and rubella.

Japan's Health Ministry said more than 100 people died from measles over the next six years, while there were no deaths in the UK.

But a spokesman said even more had died from the disease during the period when MMR was being used.

He said the withdrawal of the triple vaccine had had no impact.

Deadly epidemics of measles are far more common in Japan than the UK. The ministry says that is because children are often vaccinated much later.

Japanese officials say they have no record of a connection between MMR and autism.


Latest news

Parental worries

Background

FORUM

TALKING POINT

AUDIO VIDEO
See also:

07 Feb 02 | Health
06 Feb 02 | Health
06 Feb 02 | England
06 Feb 02 | UK Politics
Internet links:


The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Links to more Asia-Pacific stories are at the foot of the page.


E-mail this story to a friend

Links to more Asia-Pacific stories

© BBC ^^ Back to top

News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East |
South Asia | UK | Business | Entertainment | Science/Nature |
Technology | Health | Talking Point | Country Profiles | In Depth |
Programmes