A WORCESTERSHIRE MP has launched a bid to allow children to be immunised separately against three diseases instead of the combined measles, mumps and rubella jab.

Bromsgrove MP Julie Kirkbride will introduce a Private Member's Bill to the House of Commons in an attempt to overcome the fall in the numbers being protected from measles, mumps and rubella, and prevent a possible epidemic.

Medical opinion is divided over the possible dangers and no scientific evidence has yet been found to back the link between MMR and a rise in the number of cases of autism.

The National Autistic Society has said that to the best of its knowledge there is no conclusive scientific evidence to prove the MMR vaccine causes autism.

The interest in the possible link was first noticed by the research by Dr Andrew Wakefield's team at the Royal Free Hospital in London in February, 1998.

This noted that in a small group of children seen by the research team, the symptoms of their development disorder became apparent within six days of receiving the MMR vaccine.

It was a small study, which the team said "did not prove a link between measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described as autistic enterocolitis."

The National Autistic Society says that the alternatives to MMR at present are either not to vaccinate or to have the vaccines administered singly at annual intervals.

It also says if parents choose not to vaccinate their children, then they are placing them at risk.

Uptake of the MMR vaccine has dropped from 91 per cent in 1990 to 88 per cent today.

"It's important that Ministers listen to the case as there's a growing problem of parents choosing not to give their children the MMR jab," said Miss Kirkbride, whose son Angus is two months old.

"This creates an even bigger problem for public health with the possible outbreak of a measles epidemic."

Last year, a small number of chemists and GPs provided worried parents with an alternative to the controversial MMR three-in-one vaccine.

They offered protection from the three diseases in three separate jabs. The single vaccines were imported from Switzerland and France.