Thirty leading experts, including two from Oxford, have issued an urgent plea to draw a line under the alleged link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

In an open letter to the media, politicians and health professionals yesterday, they said parents had been "confused and dangerously misled" over the risks associated with the triple jab that protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

Only a few months ago, the first death of a child from measles since 1992 was confirmed. As reported in the Oxford Mail last week, the number of measles cases in Oxfordshire has increased sixfold in the last year.

In the letter, experts including Oxford paediatrician Prof Richard Moxon and Dr Anthony Harnden, Oxford University's principal in general practice, warned that if the current low levels of immunisation continued, more children would die.

They wrote: "It is not too late to avert this predictable tragedy. It is time that due weight is given to the overwhelming body of scientific evidence in favour of the vaccine.

"Misguided concepts of balance' have confused and dangerously misled parents," the letter warned.

"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."

The letter was prompted by a recent flurry of media reports reigniting concerns about the safety of MMR. One concerned a US study that found the measles virus in the guts of children with autism. A statement from the principal researcher that the research did not prove a link with the MMR vaccine was largely ignored.