EXPERTS in the region have made another appeal for parents to back the controversial MMR vaccine, while playing down fears of a measles outbreak.

Fears have been fanned this week by reports of four suspected measles cases in the Gateshead area.

It follows hard on reports of five confirmed measles cases in County Durham and 22 in Streatham, South London.

Fears of a possible link with autism and bowel disease have been blamed for a dip in the number of parents having their children immunised with the triple vaccine.

More than a thousand North-Eastern families have agreed to pay £240 to have separate MMR jabs at a private clinic at Darlington's Woodlands Hospital.

But Dr Vivien Holyoake, at the Northern and Yorkshire Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre said there was no sign of a significant measles outbreak.

Every year the Northern and Yorkshire centre sees around 300 suspected measles cases. In the vast majority of cases, they are caused by other viruses, she said.

Last year there were only three confirmed measles cases out of 298 suspected cases in the whole region.

Four of the confirmed County Durham cases were in young adults who were too old to have had the MMR vaccine.

The other case in Durham involves a five year old who did not complete a vaccination programme.

Dr Holyoake said: "People should seriously consider having their child vaccinated with MMR. Measles can cause deafness or encephalitis, which can be fatal."

While MMR vaccination figures in the North-East are near the average there has been a recent dip.

County Durham and Darlington Health Authority has seen MMR uptake rates tumble from 94.7pc in 1996 to 89.9 per cent.

Tees Health Authority recorded an uptake rate as low as 77.6 per cent in the quarter ending June last year although the most recent figure is up to 81.4 per cent.

In North Yorkshire rates for two year olds are currently at 85.1 per cent.

Suzanne Davenport, from Northallerton who is considering having separate injections for her one year old son Christopher said: "There is a real crisis of confidence in the triple vaccine. Tony Blair should tell us whether he has given it to his son and people should be given a choice."