There's more to fear from measles than from an injection

YOUR article on the adverse effects of immunisation ("Children fall ill after measles jab", 1 October) is not only nonsense, it is dangerous nonsense - it further discourages anxious parents from making use of an important piece of preventative medicine. The harm that immunisa- tion may do to an individual child is, of course, a personal tragedy but there is a much higher risk of a child developing measles-related brain damage from the natural disease than from the vaccine. Your allegation that the recent immunisation campaign was undertaken to boost the political fortunes of the then health secretary, Virginia Bottomley (who is no friend of mine), should be withdrawn. It is also a slur on the professionalism of the thousands of doctors and nurses who have worked so hard to sustain immunisation campaigns.

Dr R A Fisken

Bedale, North Yorkshire