NHS in the UK
As a general rule of thumb people in the UK accept that vaccinations are safe, if for no other reason than because that's what they are told.
No other vaccinations in modern times though have caused so much controversy than the measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccine MMR.
Concerns in the UK arose back in 1998 when research by HYPERLINK "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2006/06/13/nmmr213.xml" Dr Andrew Wakefield was published in the Lancet.
Based on a study of just 12 children he suggested there was a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism, and a type of bowel disorder.
This caused a media frenzy and encouraged many parents to claim the vaccine had harmed their children, too.
Interestingly the Japanese had already withdrawn the vaccine in 1993 after they too were worried about a link to autism.
After further trials in Japan they found that autism levels were rising even whislt MMR had been withdrawn, and therefore the jab was safe to use again.
Repeated assurances from the British Government have failed to win back public confidence over the past decade, although when Tony Blair was still Prime Minister he refused to confirm whether his own child had received the MMR jab.
It was also discovered that Dr Wakefield's research was funded by the Legal Services Commission (LSC), which he failed to disclose at the time of publishing his findings in the Lancet.
The LSC had given Wakefield a grant of £50,000 to seek evidence to back a claim for compensation from parents, who believed their children had been damaged by MMR.
Speaking in 2004 Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, said Wakefield's research was poor science, which had led to a loss of confidence in a vaccine which had saved millions of children's lives.
Even in 2009 the debate rages on about whether parents should give their children the triple MMR jab.
The media has kept the issue rolling on with scare mongering and comparisons to Thalidomide, which was withdrawn in 1961 from the market after being found to have caused deformities in up to 20,000 new born babies worldwide.
The uptake of the vaccine varies across the country, but it is estimated that only one in four children under five have had both MMR injections needed to give full protection against the three illnesses.
One mother now regretting not giving her child the vaccination saw her daughter hospitalised for five weeks after catching measles, which has now left her partially deaf.
With measles outbreaks in the country becoming more widepsread there are calls to make the vaccination compulsory.
Public health expert Sir Sandy Macara says children should not be able to go to school unless they have received the vaccination, which would fall in line with other countries such as the US, most of Australia, Spain and Greece.
Others feel the choice should remain with the parents, and the government largely supports that view, choosing to plough more resources in to educating about the benefits of vaccination.
The outbreak of swine flu has knocked MMR back down the health agenda, but it is sure to return for debate sooner rather than later.
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