Why Japan banned MMR vaccine
by JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail
Japan stopped using the MMR vaccine seven years ago – virtually the only developed nation to turn its back on the jab.
Government health chiefs claim a four-year experiment with it has had serious financial and human costs.
Of the 3,969 medical compensation claims relating to vaccines in the last 30 years, a quarter had been made by those badly affected by the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, they say.
The triple jab was banned in Japan in 1993 after 1.8 million children had been given two types of MMR and a record number developed non-viral meningitis and other adverse reactions.
Official figures show there were three deaths while eight children were left with permanent handicaps ranging from damaged hearing and blindness to loss of control of limbs…