HEALTH officials are inviting parents to use the half term break as an opportunity to get an MMR jab for their children.

NHS South West Essex is urging parents of children who have not had the controversial vaccination, to get it done this week, at one of its mobile immunisation clinics.

The appeal comes following a recent outbreak of mumps in Billericay and a surge in measles cases in Wales, which saw at least one youngster hospitalised.

The trust is taking a mobile drop-in immunisation clinic to shopping centres, schools and playgrounds across Basidon and Thurrock over the coming week.

It will be in Wickford town centre on Friday and at Lake Meadows Park, off Radford Way, Billericay on Saturday, in both cases, between 8am to 4.30pm.

Parents simply can turn up with their children.

The Measles, Mumps and Rubella jab attracted controversy in 1998, when a doctor linked the vaccination to autism, a link health experts have always denied.

NHS South West Essex officials estimate about 20,000 children aged from 13 months to 18 years in its area could be at risk of measles and mumps, because they have had only one the MMR jabs, or none at all.

Kathy Abbott, immunisation manager for NHS South West Essex, stressed: “The MMR vaccination is effective against mumps measles and German measles. There is no proof of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.”

The mobile clinics will be on the road all through June and July. To find out about where they will be and when, call 0800 5879159.