Britain's top health official says a whooping cough vaccine that contains traces of mercury will no longer be used.

In a statement Saturday, Health Minister John Hutton said the vaccine will be replaced, probably in September, with a five-in-one inoculation for Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hib disease and polio.

Child safety activists in Britain and the United States have charged that the mercury in the whooping cough vaccine can cause autism in children, a charge the British health department has denied.

The vaccine is administered at the age of two months.

The spokeswoman for one British group praised the removal of the mercury-laden shot, but questioned the safety of the five-in-one vaccine. She said it raises the risk of adverse reactions and makes it harder to trace the cause of such reactions.

Some information for this report provided by Reuters.