MMR vaccination rates in Angus show an uptake of over 93 per cent as NHS Tayside revealed to North East Scotland MSP Marlyn Glen that Tayside has been measles-free in the past three years.

Ms. Glen said that the MMR vaccination rates for the Angus Community Health Partnership between April and June of this year was 93.2 per cent at 24 months of age , and above the Scottish average.

Ms. Glen congratulated parents and health professionals in Angus "for showing that the triple MMR vaccine is the most effective and safest way of protection against childhood diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella."

Ms. Glen has been informed by NHS Tayside that there has been no case of measles in Tayside in the past three years.

In a reply to a letter from Ms. Glen who wrote to him at the time of recent measles outbreaks in England , NHS Tayside Chair Peter Bates added that the MMR vaccination "offers safe effective protection " and that " the high level of acceptance by Tayside parents, of the offer of MMR for their children, may well be a factor in the low incidence figures" for measles.

Mr. Bates told Ms. Glen that MMR uptake at 24 months in Tayside was 90.6 percent in 2005 and 92.4 per cent in 2006.

Figures for March –June 2007 show the uptake to be 92.4 per cent.

Tayside’s immunisation uptake figures were "consistently above the Scottish average, and well above figures for parts of England that have recently experienced measles outbreaks."

The figures were "consistent with the gradually rising trend for MMR uptake in recent years since the drop in uptake since 1998."

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