Data for last year show the immunisation rate in Britain was around 83%, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) says 95% of a population must be vaccinated to protect the whole community from potential outbreaks and epidemics.
The first fatal case of measles in Britain since 1992 was reported in March.
"We are now faced with a potentially serious situation," the letter said. "Years of low uptake mean large numbers of unprotected children are now entering school. Unless this is rectified urgently, and children are immunised, there will be further outbreaks and more unnecessary deaths."
In 1998, gastroenterologist Dr Andrew Wakefield published a study linking the MMR vaccination to the occurrence of autism in children, but his study has since been widely discounted.
The doctors said their decision to publish the letter was prompted by another recent spate of media reports reigniting concerns about the safety of MMR.
Dr David Elliman, a consultant in community child health at Great Ormond Street hospital in London, described Wakefield's report as a "scare story" and said there was no reason for parents to worry about the MMR vaccine.
"There is an enormous body of research around MMR, and it's one of the safest vaccines ... we have," he said.
Elliman said in the first five months of this year, there were more cases of measles in England than for the last 12 years. "It is not too late to avert this predictable tragedy," he and his colleagues wrote.
Jackie Fletcher, a spokeswoman for the campaign group JABS which wants single vaccines to be offered to everyone, agrees that parents should vaccinate their babies but also says
"The drug companies that make the MMR also make the single vaccines ... and our department of health, if they are concerned about outbreaks of measles, have a duty of care to order in single vaccines so parents can have a choice."
July 2006 |
