Young children are to be immunised against six diseases at once, the Government has confirmed.

After their first birthday toddlers will be offered a single appointment to have three injections to guard against measles, mumps, rubella, two types of meningitis and a form of pneumonia.

This replaces the existing NHS policy for England and Wales of spacing the vaccines over a couple of months.

The change is designed to boost vaccination rates.

Writing to all GPs concerned, the Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies said the new policy should be "brought in as soon as practicable for your area".

Currently around 85% of all toddlers turn up to get immunised.
Boosting uptake

Although this is more than in previous years, experts are still having to work hard to get the figure up to the 95% level that is necessary to effectively stop the spread of the disease in the community.

The vaccination rate has been well below this level for several years, ever since the Lancet medical journal published controversial research about the MMR vaccine in 1998.

The study has since been discredited, but confidence has been slow to return in the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Government advisors believe simplifying the immunisation schedule will help boost vaccine uptake by making it easier for parents to get their children vaccinated.

While some parents will welcome one fewer visit to the doctor, others may be concerned about exposing their children to so many vaccines in one sitting.

But experts say combining the vaccines should not pose any additional risk.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Independent scientific research has shown that providing these vaccines at the same time is safe, effective and more convenient for parents."

Children will still be offered the usual series of baby vaccinations as well as their pre-school booster jabs after their third birthday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11809967

I think that as long as they do research into outcomes just in case of another autism risk then this is good. Though since these will be dealt with by the practice nurse is this a major saving?

There never was an autism risk.

Good news, I'd say.

+1.

The entire point of these vaccines is to prevent fatal illnesses. The problem with so many vaccines is not everyone gets the full set. Some might mistakenly think one set is enough, others might forget, others still may decide they don't want to cope with their upset child. Simplifying vaccines IMO would be fantastic.

How often do kids see doctors anyway during their first five years? If you can combine normal check ups and vaccinations it will save time and money. If there were six monthly check ups they could proceed with them that way making sure that boosters were taken at the correct time as well. The way this is presented much of the time is as a cost savings measure, which does not engender confidence. Regardless of facts people can be irrational.

I can't believe people still think that there ever was. I mean, aside from there being no evidence, the Doctor who suggested it was struck off the Medical Register this year.

I know this is raking over old coals, but wasn’t this decision that there was no Autism risk based on ethical wrongdoings, not findings in the tests that were ran? If there was a potential link found, surely that is worthy of a proper study instead of dismissing the findings out of hand?

Clearly, I am not a doctor, so do not have all the facts in that case.

There's a few things going on, but basically the chap in question didn't use anything like a large enough sample on which to base his study, and it appears there may have been other motives behind his claim (Wikiclicky).
Added to the fact that perhaps the most genuine reason for the rise in autism is simply that we're better at diagnosis.
Move the goal posts of what qualifies you as appearing on the autism spectrum, and suddenly you're no longer 'a bit slow' or 'backwards' but you're autistic. So lots of children who previously wouldn't have been diagnosed were, and thus we get as apparent rise in autism.

I think that the jabs are safe. The consequences of the other diseases are far worse. The numbers of autism could be caused by other factors such as better diagnosis or more attention to the condition by parents, none of which require a jab.

Not giving jabs to your children could put the entire population at risk and render them useless. I think jabs should be compulsory for all children before preschool

He had eight kids in his study. Eight. Not eight thousand, not eight hundred, not even eighty. Eight.

Have a read of this: clicky

Listen to the lady, she speaks wisdom.

Well I'm gonna all Bratty on you and say that I don't like the government stabbing me with diseases. MMR was fine, I've had it. But 6 in one go seems like a lot to me and I have no idea what was wrong with spacing them out.

That said, I'm just wary following the swine flu fiasco.

I agree with you in that I don't like the idea of compulsory vaccinations. I well remember the communal stabbings that my classmates and I were subjected to. They were horrendous experiences that nobody should ever have to go through. Screaming, faintings, fear, people trying to run out - it was like an abbatoir. Horrible.

But the reason it was quite so horrible wasn't the fault of the vaccination itself. The real problem, I think, was the Orwellian manner in which it was organised; no information, herded around like sheep and given two months warning so that we could really wind ourselves up about it.

I think if the government were to get this right (haha) then it could be an outrageous success. But I'd have some reservations:

1. Will the 6-fold vacc be substituted for the 3-fold or will people be allowed a choice?
2. Would only having one session end up reducing vacc rates for the normal 3 because people don't understand how vaccines work and don't want to risk a Meningitis infection?
3. What are the current vacc rates for the extra vaccs and would the extra vaccs get enough uptake to make them worthwhile doing?
4. Is there enough correct information out there? There's a hell of a lot of FUD around (Daily Heil etc.) and perhaps what is needed is a concerted blanket-bombing media campaign to get the message out.
5. Further to 4., does the general public understand that the autism "risk" was total arse and that these vaccines are pretty much safe - much safer than getting Meningitis anyway?

You've never been to one, have you?