Experience of a specialist service for advice on childhood immunisation

We report a 3 year experience of a specialist clinic set up to advise on childhood immunisation. In all, 20 children were referred for advice on their suitability for measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) immunisation and 93 for advice about pertussis immunisation. All of the former and 78 (84%) of the latter were advised that there were no contraindications to their immunisation. The 20 children given MMR vaccine and 55 (71%) of the 78 who were immunised against pertussis had no adverse effects. The clinic serves a small but important group of children who, because of parental or health care professional uncertainty, may not receive protection against potentially damaging or fatal infections.