THE grim warning being sounded in East Lancashire today is that a child may die from measles because too few are being vaccinated.

Vaccination rates for children in the area have dropped to a dangerously low 84 per cent.

That's against the Government's recommendation of 95 per cent, a figure it says is needed to ensure there is no outbreak.

Of course, we do not know if the figure has fallen because of the recent publicity surrounding the baby Blair case.

But in the last six months we now see only 84 per cent of parents ensuring their child has the MMR jab compared to 90 per cent before the Leo controversy.

Whether the Prime Minister was right or wrong to refuse to disclose if his son had the MMR jab is a matter for him.

If he had come out and said yes, baby Leo had been vaccinated, then would we have seen an increase in youngsters having the jab in East Lancashire?

Dr Stephen Morton, director of public health for East Lancashire Health Authority, said the levels of vaccination have dropped because of 'national controversy'.

He warns that that at the current level, there is a real possibility of an outbreak and death.

Worse still, there have been no cases of measles in East Lancashire, making it very likely an epidemic is imminent.

The Government needs to step up its famous publicity machine now to make sure every parents knows all the facts about MMR vaccinations.

At the end of the day, whether baby Leo has been vaccinated or not, it is up to the individual parent as to whether their child is vaccinated.

And that's why we need the honest answers to some very simple questions -- now.