Doctors have revealed that the boys, who have been left mentally and physically impaired after contracting measles, are the first known victims of the MMR scare in Britain.

The boys’ doctors blame the now discredited research of Dr Andrew Wakefield for the boys’ condition. They say his claim that MMR could cause autism led to the outbreak because fewer children are being vaccinated.

Matthew Costen, 13, was blinded and paralysed after contracting measles last year. He is believed to have caught the disease from his friend Joe Quick, 9, who suffered partial paralysis to his left side and damage to his speech. Their condition originated from an area of south London where the take-up rate of MMR, which offers protection against measles, mumps and rubella, had fallen to 52%.

For medical reasons unrelated to MMR, neither boy could receive the vaccine. This meant they were dependent on other children being vaccinated to minimise their exposure to the infection.

Dr Judy Taylor, a consultant at Guy’s hospital who treated the boys, said: “The publication of his (Wakefield’s) concerns over MMR is directly linked to what has happened to Matthew and Joe.

“Immunisation rates have fallen in the area where Joe contracted measles and he must have caught it from someone who was not immunised. We are devastated, and frantic that the rates pick up again.”

Karen Pettitt, 36, Matthew’s mother, said: “He (Wakefield) abused his power as a doctor by making the comments he did. That paper should never have been published.”

It has also emerged that three babies have died in Ireland in measles outbreaks caused by falling take-up of MMR.

A Sunday Times investigation revealed last month that Wakefield’s research paper was seriously flawed. He had failed to reveal a conflict of interest when he first published his research in The Lancet in 1998.

Yesterday Wakefield said he had always advised children should be vaccinated. Any increase in outbreaks was because of government failure to offer single-jab vaccinations as an alternative to MMR, he said.

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