MMR boycott has left two million children at risk of measles

Two million children risk catching measles as a result of the MMR scare, doctors warned yesterday. They said the outbreak in Wales could spread to London, where nearly half of the capital’s children are not vaccinated. The disease has already infected around 800 children in Swansea. Dr Helen Bedford, of University College London’s Institute of Child Health, said: ‘There are about two million children who are susceptible because they haven’t been vaccinated. London is a particular case of point.’ Ten years ago, 45 per cent of five-year-olds in London failed to have the required two doses of vaccine. Last year the figure was 81 per cent. Teenagers aged between 13 and 15 are more likely to be susceptible to measles because of the controversy over the since-discredited report about MMR jabs being linked to autism in the late 1990s. Dr Bedford told a science conference in London: ‘There’s a simple message that parents need...