BMJ  2005;330 (14 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7500.0-f

Editor's choice

Think mumps

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Social historians will have a field day with recent vaccine scares. Evidence that a vaccine works and is safe should be universal, but antivaccine campaigns seem to take on a peculiarly local flavour. In the 1970s, concerns that whooping cough vaccine caused neurological damage were largely a British affair. In the 1990s, worries that hepatitis B vaccine caused multiple sclerosis mainly played out in France. The suggested link between MMR, autism, and inflammatory bowel disease echoed in the US but remained most potent in the UK (p 1120). Rather than illustrating cultural peculiarities, these episodes may show that mass vaccination programmes raise people's awareness of potential risks—something governments must take into account when planning future schemes.

WHO's highly successful global polio eradication programme is the latest victim of localised antivaccine activism. Two years ago, Nigerian Muslims boycotted polio vaccination after local imams claimed that the vaccine was part . . . [Full text of this article]

Fiona Godlee, editor

(fgodlee@bmj.com)


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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Unscientific Bias
John Stone
bmj.com, 13 May 2005 [Full text]
So Mumps cases DID have MMR?
Lisa C Blakemore-Brown
bmj.com, 13 May 2005 [Full text]
Tepid mumps
Lenny Schafer
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When?
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Re: Do we really know anything?
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Think mumps, but vaccination in a child?
Dr JK Anand
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think mumps vaccination in every child!
Catherina G. Becker
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Mumps and deafness--no association
Clifford G. Miller
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