YORK parents who are worried about their children having the MMR vaccination will be given another option next month.

Fears over the safety of the combined vaccination have seen some parents willing to pay instead for single jabs against measles, mumps and rubella. Thanks to a mobile clinic which will visit York in September, concerned parents in and around the city will be able to take their children for the single jabs.

This newspaper believes parents ought to be given the choice. Worries persist over the safety of MMR, which has been claimed by some medical experts to have a link with autism and bowel disease.

In a climate of such uncertainty, it is right that parents should be able to take other precautions. Nothing alarms parents more than any potential threat to their children's health. Those parents who remain happy with the combined jab can make their choice; and those parents who remain suspicious about the MMR jab should be given an alternative.

The official Government line remains that MMR is "indisputably safe". Such reassurance would be welcome if only doubts about the safety of the combined vaccination were not so persistent. Parents hear the Government dutifully churning out its line that MMR is safe, while all around a chorus of doubt persists. Ultimately this is not a healthy situation.

A climate of worrying uncertainty could develop into something more serious and potentially see the return of an old and almost disappeared infectious viral disease such as measles. Already in the first three months of this year, the incidence of measles cases quadrupled - a rise put down both to a fall in take-up of MMR and one significant outbreak in south London.

Many parents have expressed their concerns, with one of the more high-profile doubters being Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London.

Mr Livingstone made headlines with his doubts. Doctors complained that he was blundering into a sensitive area he did not understand. Some parents may feel Mr Livingstone was articulating their own very real fears.

Updated: 10:39 Thursday, August 01, 2002