I've not ranted about the SCMP for several weeks. However I nearly spat my corn flakes across the living room when I read Saturday's SCMP and saw an article discussing the merits of the MMR vaccine (unlinkable, but the full article is in the Jack van der Kamp copyright free extended entry).

Essentially the article rehashes "worries" about the MMR triple vaccine. What they are relying on are old and discredited claims by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that the vaccine is dangerous. A quick Google search brings you to this page which clearly dispels the myths. I realise it is difficult for journos to fit in a quick search of the internet when writing scare-monger articles but it would certainly help their cause. Unless accuracy is irrelevant to them. Which clearly it is.

Even the article itself fails by its own measure. For example

Since the combined MMR vaccines were introduced for one-year-olds in 1990, the number of new autism cases diagnosed by the Department of Health has jumped, from 146 in 1990 to 446 in 2003.

A spokeswoman attributes this to increased awareness about autism and the opening of two new centres to deal with more cases. "It is is too remote to link the trend to MMR vaccination," she says. The department strongly recommends children are immunised, saying failure to do so leaves them unprotected against the three diseases. "Repeated independent overseas studies have shown no association between the MMR vaccine and autism," the department says...

Even the Society of the Welfare of the Autistic Person, which represents 700 families with autistic children in Hong Kong, says its members seem indifferent to the controversy.

Perhaps we should chip in for the SCMP for an internet connection so they can stop spouting such drivel.

IN JANUARY, Hong Kong mother Angela Wan May-ying did something that would cause sleepless nights for many of her counterparts in Britain. Without even considering the consequences, she took her baby daughter, Christie, to the local government clinic and held her in her arms while the nurse gave her a vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). Afterwards, she took Christie home and carried on as normal without giving the vaccine a second thought.

If she lived in Britain, it would be a different story. Ever since 1998, when Dr Andrew Wakefield published a research paper in the medical journal The Lancet linking the triple vaccine with autism and bowel disorders in some children, the letters "MMR" have struck fear into parents of recently born babies.

But while the debate about the vaccine rages overseas, in Hong Kong MMR is just another routine injection to be ticked off on the immunisation schedule given to parents at one of their child's early visits to health clinics.

Many Hong Kong parents are unaware of the debate. "I don't know about this," says one. "I only follow the time schedule to have the injections." Others such as Dora Tsang, 31, when told of the reported risks, says she's happy to let the government decide what's safe for her 11- month-old son, who is due for his first dose next month.

Hong Kong paediatrician Anthony Ng Wing-keung says most parents he comes across are oblivious to the controversy surrounding MMR, and he only occasional gets questioned about the vaccine - mostly by expatriates.

But should Hong Kong parents be told? Since the combined MMR vaccines were introduced for one-year-olds in 1990, the number of new autism cases diagnosed by the Department of Health has jumped, from 146 in 1990 to 446 in 2003. A spokeswoman attributes this to increased awareness about autism and the opening of two new centres to deal with more cases. "It is is too remote to link the trend to MMR vaccination," she says. The department strongly recommends children are immunised, saying failure to do so leaves them unprotected against the three diseases. "Repeated independent overseas studies have shown no association between the MMR vaccine and autism," the department says.

Even the Society of the Welfare of the Autistic Person, which represents 700 families with autistic children in Hong Kong, says its members seem indifferent to the controversy.

"We heard of the controversy after a parent migrated to England and faxed the information to us," says the society's spokeswoman. "There is no big reaction from our parents as we have no evidence to link MMR to autism."

Ng, a visiting lecturer of reporting public health issues at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong, has completed a thesis on vaccines, including MMR, and is a strong supporter. He says Wakefield's claims are unfounded and that, even if the autism link is correct, there's no basis to suggest separate vaccinations against the three diseases are safer. But he also says parents should be better informed. The danger of not telling them, he says, is that they may get the wrong information.

In 2002, Ng hosted two presentations on the MMR controversy, but neither attracted much interest from the medical sector. "At present, those who have found out from the internet tend to be the ones who are more educated and influential to society," he says. "As they opt not to have the MMR injection, then other parents will follow. If it gets to the critical level whereby only 50 per cent of the population has immunity, then the viruses can spread and that can be very dangerous."

Fellow paediatrician Yvonne Ou is also concerned about parents opting not to have their children vaccinated. She says this happened in the late 1980s when vaccinations plummeted amid fears that the whooping cough vaccine might cause high fever and seizures leading to brain damage.

"We have since seen an epidemic of babies getting whooping cough and then brain damage," says Dr Ou. "Now, the vaccine is coming back. How many kids do I need to see who get measles or mumps or pregnant women with congenital rubella before we then go back to saying, `Oh well, we'd better do vaccines again'?"

Ou says she understands why parents with autistic children have supported claims of a link between MMR and autism. "If you have a child with problems you want an answer ... For the majority of autistic children no cause can be found, and this link is just so acceptable to parents," she says.

Alan Mercer, chairman of the Rainbow Project, which provides special schools for autistic children in Hong Kong, says the controversy has become too emotional, and informed debate is needed.

"We need to look at this subject in a more balanced and less emotional way," he says. "There is a spiral in the incidence of autism - especially in the middle spectrum of the disorder. Maybe this is because children who would previously have fallen within other categories of developmental delay are now being diagnosed as autistic.

"But this alone cannot explain the rise. A lot of people in the field think that there are new factors at play - maybe environmental or diet or vaccine-related - and this clearly merits sensible and serious scientific inquiry, and serious money should be put in to find out what's going on."

In the meantime, until proof is found one way or another, the parents are left in the middle. For those, such as British-born mother and journalist Adele Rosi, 30, who knows of the controversy, the decision to vaccinate or not presents a tough decision. Rosi is the mother of Felix, a healthy 15-month-old who is due to have the MMR vaccine.

"Felix is a very happy, healthy 15- month-old, and I don't want anything to interfere with or change that. If I felt that a decision I had made jeopardised that well-being I would never forgive myself," says Rosi. "I worry that, several years down the line, they will confirm that MMR causes autism.

"I am completely confused now as to what to do, and don't feel I have concrete information either way."

Parents who are unaware of the controversy will go on none the wiser, taking their children to the government clinics and having them vaccinated. Angela Wan May-ying says that, now she has been told of the alleged risks, she is afraid. But she says she would have preferred someone at the government clinic to have told her. She thinks mothers should be offered the option of single doses.

"I was scared when I found out," she says. "But if I knew beforehand, I would have thought twice or try to find more information from the internet before deciding whether to give [my daughter] the injection," she says.