Health bosses in Leeds are warning that uptake levels of the MMR vaccine are still not high enough to prevent outbreaks of the illnesses.
* Click here to sign up to free news and sport email alerts from your YEP.More children in the city are having the combined mumps, measles and rubella ja
b, latest figures show. The number of youngsters having the first of the two MMR injections has increased by eight per cent in 2009 compared to the previous year.
Children are given their first jab at around 13 months with a second dose at three years.
* Click here to watch latest YEP news and sport video reports.The combined jab has been enveloped in controversy for several years since it was linked to autism.
* Click here for latest YEP news and sport picture slideshows.Some parents, including Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, have paid privately for their children to be given separate measles, mumps and rubella jabs.
However the possible link to autism has since been disproved and NHS heads insist the combined vaccine is safe.
The latest session of a General Medical Council hearing involving three doctors whose research initially sparked off the controversy is due to end later this week.
Between July and September 2009, 84.7 per cent of two-year-olds in Leeds had been vaccinated with the MMR jab compared to 76.6 per cent in the same period in 2008.
However the levels need to be up to at least 95 per cent to protect the
community.
"We need more children to have both doses of the vaccine to stop the spread of these diseases," said Dr Simon Balmer, head of health protection at NHS Leeds.
"It is encouraging to see that the numbers of children being vaccinated against MMR is slowly going up.
"However, we know that part of the increase has been due to some
improvements in the way we record data on childhood immunisations so we are still urging parents to get their children vaccinated. We're always worried about measles because very rarely it can kill.
"Our main aim is to protect children against this and other infectious diseases which can be serious and can cause long-term health problems for some people.
"The MMR vaccine is proven to be the safest and most effective way of protecting children against these serious diseases."
Nationally there has also been a drop in the number of children being immunised and an increase in cases of measles, mumps and rubella. Six cases of measles were confirmed in Leeds last year.
Vaccination and immunisation manager Beryl Bleasby said: "We know that vaccine safety is a key worry for parents and so we are going to be doing some more awareness raising throughout the year."
