HEALTH chiefs have moved to reassure parents in Scotland that the current childhood measles epidemic in Wales won't spread north.

Measels vaccination levels in Glasgow are consistently high, say city health bosses.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said uptake of the MMR vaccine was at around 95% in the population.

The news came after poor vaccine rates in Wales sparked an ongoing epidemic of the disease.

The number of confirmed cases in the Swansea epidemic is now around 600.

Health officials estimate about 3800 children in the city have still not had the MMR vaccine and parents were being urged to act.

Gillian Penrice, a health consultant for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said Scotland, traditionally, had a higher uptake of the jab than elsewhere in the UK.

She said, unlike other public screening programmes, there was very little variation in rates between affluent and poorer areas of the city.

The board said it had experienced only a slight dip in uptake, when research in the late 1990s, and since discredited, raised concerns over a link between the injection and Autism.

It has since carried out an immunisation programme in secondary schools to plug any gaps in immunisation.

Ms Penrice said: "In Glasgow, and in all of Scotland we have found that we are hardly seeing any cases because uptake of MMR has been very, very good.

"It was slightly down when the scare happened but it never fell to levels, of those south of the border.

"However we don't want to be complacent. The message to parents is, it's never too late to be immunised."

Ms Penrice said the board had experienced some incidents of measles in Glasgow, within the travelling communities.

She added: "Because the baseline of immunisation is so high, it wouldn't cause any problems."

caroline.wilson@ eveningtimes.co.uk