Measles … I don’t understand!

It was not common
I was there, were you? Every, but everyone knew someonewho had been permanently damaged by measles and very few were stupid enough to get their kids exposed deliberately.

Thank you, @veritasverity . I think people genuinely underestimate these kinds of diseases and their impact. People were understandably terrified of measles.

Its really scary that people think it's absolutely fine to have a baby with measles around other babies who haven't yet been vaccinated 😳 I really can't understand how as a parent you can happily not get your child vaccinated, I can't wrap my head around it at all. Glad your little one is ok now

It can be very salutary to walk through an old churchyard, with graves from the 1800s, and see how many gravestones list 2, 3, or even more children from the same family, all dead within a very few weeks from the same epidemic.

You are misrepresenting it.
Alicia is relieved that it was measles because she had thought that the brain fog she had during the exam was retribution for her sneering at her class mates that were not as clever as her.

You're talking bilge mate. There was an outbreak of measles in the early 1950s, before an effective jab had been made. Every case was notifiable and put into isolation. Absolutely no bloody way would there have been measles parties, there was an outbreak in 1952/3 in my mums school, the school was temporarily closed, to try and put a break on the spread, my mums best friend was left severely disabled and never returned back to the school.
40/50 years ago there was a vaccine and measles was pretty much eradicated from the UK.
Measles doesn't just kill, it causes all manner of disabilities including severe brain damage, bilateral hearing loss, permanent blindness, to name but a few. It can cause damage and death to the healthiest of people. It's not called Morbillivirus hominis for nothing you know!

You are being a responsible parent OP, and getting your child vaccinated. You are giving her as much protection as possible against diseases which previously harmed, seriously harmed or killed children. Even if she meets children with less responsible parents, she will have a good measure of protection.

German measles parties might have been a thing in the past. German measles is Rubella, which is usually only dangerous when caught in pregnancy, so before vaccination parents did want girls to catch it young. So there may be some confusion there.

The dangerous nonsense is that posters claim that measles is only harmful for immunocompromised, this is nonsense and a lie. If you'd bothered to actually read my post you would see that I explained about the parties and that they were ONLY for VACCINATED people

All that bullshit publicity about MMR causing autism has been responsible for a lot of damage. Measles was virtually nonexistent and now it’s back thanks to those eejits. It’s been disproved over and over again, but they insist on “doing their own research” and going out into the community and spreading their misinformation and their germs.

1950s measles parties were a thing, they carried on past the 50s because things like that do. I caught measles from a measles party age about 2, I dont remember exactly because I was so young.

I think that you are confusing measles with chicken pox, which is generally milder as a childhood illness then in adults, so chicken pox parties were indeed a thing. Measles has a significantly higher chance of permanent injury or death and has never been taken lightly, except by anti-vaxers. When my DM was a child they still isolated children with measles.

There are also a generation of us now 30+ who have ever had one dose. My DH is immunosuppressed and has never had the MMR jab. As I've only had one dose as a kid our GP agreed for me to have a booster just incase earlier this year. My DS literally had his pre school booster with it in yesterday.

No, I think you'll find it was very common. Please refer to my comment above.

@pepawepa. I was born in the 50s. I don't know anyone who deliberately exposed their childrento measles. It terrified parents as did polio. On the contrary anyone who didn't try to avoid exposure to even suspected measles would have been regarded as terminally stupid. I don't know if your ancestors were that stupid but suspect you are just muddled.

Whereas these days, people pay for chicken pox vaccines. A completely normal childhood disease which our parents wanted us to catch young.
Future generations probably won't believe we had chicken pox parties, either.

i think that would have been German measles. People did that because of the devastating consequences of getting it whilst pregnant. Thankfully there’s a vaccine now.

It also isn't the same in every part of London - I think it depends on whether there are high rates if measles in each borough. So for example, my friends in Wandsworth and Lambeth did get the 2nd one early - we in Merton get the 2nd one at the usual age. Also doesn't help with the confusion!

Isn't measles more dangerous for children- so why would people have measles parties? As opposed to chicken pox parties where it was thought it was better to have it younger.

It's not "dangerous nonsense" , it's a fact. Some people did want their children to get measles to get it done and over with before vaccines. You'd most likely get it at some point anyway

Yep….
my son is immuno compromised and was in hospital last month, three cases of whooping cough on the ward. Two weeks ago I’m in Tesco and there’s a very obvious family of kids with whooping cough spreading it round the aisles! It’s so inconsiderate

I loved reading Malory Towers as a child ❤️

People had chicken pox parties. Never heard of measles parties.

MEASLES?
You all deliberately caught MEASLES? 😱😱😱

Are you sure you aren't talking about chicken pox?

The increase in cases is because less people are vaccinating:

vaccination rates are "well below" what is recommended by the World Health Organization…."On average about only 85% of children are arriving at school having had the two MMR doses," she said.
NHS figures show uptake of both MMR doses by the age of five was considered very low in some areas in 2022-23:
74% in London
83.7% in West Midlands
85.1% in the North West
WHO recommends two-dose vaccination coverage of at least 95% of the population because measles is highly infectious and spreads easily.
But in cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham only 75% of five-year-olds are in that position.

(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68028530.amp)

it’s one to take seriously - by having a vaccination