A group of leading GPs wants the measles vaccination to be compulsory before children start primary school.

A group of leading GPs wants the measles vaccination to be compulsory before children start primary school.

A group of leading GPs has sent a letter to ministers calling for the measles vaccination to be compulsory before children start primary school. The four GPs from London who includes a former government advisor on health policy has urged the health secretary, and the education secretary to embrace the proposed change.

They believe that by doing so it would save lives and tackle dangerous complacency from parents who do not ensure that their child is fully immunised. They believe that the school should ask all parents for proof that their four or five-year-old has had the two recommended doses of the vaccine before they are allowed to attend.

The move comes because the proportion of five-year-olds in England receiving both doses has fallen in recent years. It is below the 95% the World Health Organisation says is necessary in order to provide herd immunity and in effect eradicate measles mumps and rubella.

Doctors fear that because of parents heeding misinformation spread by anti-vaccination campaigners the cases of measles and mumps are rising. The GPs move has triggered a backlash with medical and public health organisations saying that to make the MMR compulsory it would be hasty, premature and a knee jerk reaction to falling rates of vaccination. It would take away a patients choice and lessen the trust between patients and doctors. It would also lead to those parents who are skeptical about the vaccination to home school their children.

The Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health are both opposed to the plan.

Should the MMR vaccination be compulsory before starting school?

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