A seven-week-old baby has been given the MMR jab by mistake, it has emerged.

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Baby given MMR jab 'by mistake'

A seven-week-old baby has been given the MMR jab by mistake, it has emerged.

The boy was taken to a doctor's surgery in Edinburgh for his diphtheria vaccination on 31 January but was given the measles, mumps and rubella jab.

GP lind Wight, who works at the Durham Road Medical Group surgery, said she had apologised to the boy's foster parents and said he was not harmed.

The MMR vaccination is not normally given to children until they are about 12 months old.

In a statement, the GP said: "We have apologised to the foster parents who brought the child to the surgery for the jab.

"The mistake was recognised straight away and the manufacturers were contacted.

"We were told the child's health would not be compromised and that additional treatment would not be necessary.

"The foster parents have since been back to the surgery where the child has been checked and is in good health."

The incident follows reports of a number of other cases of patients in Scotland being given the wrong treatment.

A teenage girl being treated for a brain tumour spoke out last week after she was given 17 overdoses of radiation at Scotland's largest cancer treatment centre, the Beatson in Glasgow.

It has also emerged that a woman died a day after mistakenly being given medicine intended for another patient at the city's Stobhill Hospital in 2004.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/4707788.stmPublished: 2006/02/13 08:55:43 GMT© BBC MMVI