MORE than 60 parents from as far afield as Scotland and Essex have descended on Worcester to have their children immunised.

Single vaccination jabs for measles, mumps and rubella were made available in the city at the weekend after a private health company stepped forward.

Desumo Information and Healthcare held its first clinic at a day centre in Worcester on Saturday.

Desumo, set up by Ledbury mum Deborah Ryding and Natalie Bowden from Swansea after concerns about the controversial three-in-one MMR jab, plans to run clinics on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month.

"We had a very good response in Worcester," said Mrs Ryding.

"We expected between 50 and 60 people for the first session, so we reached our target."

The single jabs, which have routinely been replaced by the MMR vaccine, are administered by Desumo's own GP, Dr Peter Mansfield. The clinic aims to give parents an informed choice on the three options available to them - the MMR, single vaccination, or nothing at all.

"We send out an information pack with the pros and cons for each option as well as a computer disk so parents can access the debates over the issue and make an informed choice," said Mrs Ryding.

"We wanted a GP who'd administer the vaccinations all the time as well as offer an aftercare programme for parents and children.

"We were conscious people would travel from quite a distance so we had to make sure everything was there for parents, including baby food and milk."

The clinic administers the three jabs - costing £35 for rubella, £50 for measles and £45 for mumps - over a period of 18 weeks, allowing for the minimum six weeks between each vaccine.

"There are other groups who do single vaccinations but as far as I know, we're the only ones to plough money back into charities involved in vaccination issues," said Mrs Ryding.

Worcestershire Health Authority said today it would not support a programme which used single dose vaccines.

"Single dose vaccines don't provide as good protection," said Dr Alan Tweddell, consultant in communicable disease control.

"Parents shouldn't feel they need to pay for these vaccines when a safe vaccine programme is provided free by the NHS.

"There's no credible evidence MMR is in any way linked to autism or Crohn's disease and local and national advice is that the best way to prevent children from contracting measles, mumps or rubella is to have them vaccinated with the MMR vaccine."

Parents who want more information about Desumo can contact Mrs Ryding on 01531 631642 or Natalie Bowden on 01792 470813.