A rock and a hard place

It isn't easy to watch someone you love endure illness, pain or disability, and the suffering of young children is particularly hard to bear. So for many parents the decision to give their child the MMR vaccine is an invidious one. Do they knowingly expose their offspring to the chance of contracting what used to be regarded as inevitable childhood diseases, or choose to protect them in the awareness that there is a remote and unproven risk of seeing the child develop Crohn's disease or autism?

I come from the pre-MMR generation when contracting measles, mumps and chickenpox were just part of growing up; and when your parents would positively encourage you to go round to play with the neighbour's children in the hope that you would catch their German measles and get it over with.

Fortunately, measles left no physical mark on me, but still – more than 40 years on – I can remember vividly how it felt: the rash, the fever, the hallucinations. It is not something I would wish on any child.

Call me cynical, but the parents who are currently wrestling with the perceived risk of the MMR vaccine are the same ones I see taking chances with their children's health every day: letting them travel unrestrained in cars; allowing them to ride their bikes without lights or safety helmets; feeding them a diet of salty, fatty and sugary processed foods; failing to encourage them to take exercise; smoking in their presence – the list is endless. It is a question of balance.

Undoubtedly there is a group of children in whom the onset of bowel disease and autism appears to have coincided with the MMR vaccination. There is almost certainly a common link among this group, and with the level of knowledge about the human genome increasing by the day it should be possible to identify the common factor rather than simply focusing on the most obvious target.

At the end of the day, the MMR vaccine may turn out to have been a trigger or a catalyst in the cases of these unfortunate children, and if we can identify those at risk we can reduce the risk of further occurrences.

In the meantime, offering a single vaccine alternative is not the answer and carries risks of its own. If doctors can't get adults to take a full course of antibiotics over five days, what chance is there of ensuring compliance in a series of injections spread over several months?

Measles, mumps and rubella are serious illnesses that can, in extreme cases, disable and even kill. We have the means at our disposal to protect children from them, and unless or until there is compelling evidence against the MMR vaccine, we owe it to them to do so.