UK GP practices order new MMR vaccine supplies

More than 200,000 extra MMR vaccine doses have been ordered by English GP practices for a national immunisation catch-up programme.

Figures from Public Health England reveal that more than 95 percent of practices across the country have requested additional supplies to support the scheme, which aims to prevent measles outbreaks by vaccinating as many ten to 16-year-olds as possible.

This age group is at a higher risk from the disease due to the fall in the take-up of the MMR vaccine during the late 1990s and early 2000s, caused by widely-circulated but now discredited reports linking the treatment to autism.

A study published in the Lancet by Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998 was the cause of this controversy, but his work has since been completely debunked, resulting in the author being struck off as a doctor.

Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation at the Department of Health, said: "It's encouraging that GPs have taken up the challenge wholeheartedly and ordered almost a quarter of a million extra doses of MMR, so we know they are ready to vaccinate people."