Measles … I don’t understand!

Didn't mean to.quoye that post!

Well that's utter rubbish, my uncle nearly died from it and he was neither already unwell nor immune compromised. It left him with eyesight damage.

"And if she does get it in all likelihood, she’ll be absolutely fine. It is immunocompromised and already unwell kids who fare badly from measles. "

I remember my mum telling me about a girl on her street she played out with dying of measles. This was in the 50s before the vaccine. I think people are blasé about it because of the effects of measles passing out of living memory.

I'm from the "party" generation. It was chicken pox. I knew a boy who was left brain damaged by measles and ghat wasn't too unusual. Only a really stupid parent would have exposed their child to measles. Some did for mumps (esp boys) or german measles (esp girls)
before the MMR because of the risks of getting it as an adult.

You sure that wasn't chicken pox?

@LynetteScavo deliberate exposure was quite common up to 40/50 years ago. The younger the better was the view.

You are thinking of chicken pox or German Measles.

Actual measles has always been recognised as dangerous. I had it as a child early 1970s, spent days in bed with blankets over the windows to keep the room as dark as possible to avoid the eye complications, and with daily home visits from the GP.

No parent ever has deliberately infected their child with measles.

Pre vaccine, I think it wasn't that measles wasn't bad, it just wasn't as bad as some of the other illnesses. Scarlet Fever used to the leading cause of death in children for example... but now its easily treatable with antibiotics.

Tell that to Road Dahls family, his otherwise healthy daughter died from measles .

My baby had measles in May ( 9 months old). I vaccinate my kids. He was fine but while he was ill it was very scary. He caught it from hospital (I caught norovirus). When I had to take him into hospital for the measles there was no infection control in my local hospital and I was sat with all other children/babies waiting to be seen. I took the decision to sit as far away as I could. When I mentioned to the doctor about having another room to sit in, she made a slight joke about how it would be good for the other children's immune system.

I had to go in for the second time as he got worse. This time I was out in my own room and it was treated more seriously. However, when they did the swab to send off to the infections and diseases department they forgot to tick the box to check for measles so was never confirmed. Very frustrating

He had his jabs as usual at one.

I think you are thinking of chicken pox. I have an old medical dictionary from the 1930s. It was my grandmothers. In this it warns against exposure to measles and efforts were made to quarantine children who had it. Measles can kill healthy children and it maims many more. I used to work with an older lady who had been partially blinded by it in childhood, before vaccines were available.

@LynetteScavo the pp was talking back in the days before MMR I expect. Back then with no vaccine people thought it better to catch measles when you were a child. I had measles and german measles in the 60s and I think parents who don't vaccinate their DC are mad

DS had rubella when he was 16 months old. I was surprised as he'd had the first MMR. The G.P. said that common sense should have told me that he wouldn't be fully protected until he'd had the second MMR.

True! But she does fail the School Certificate! 😦

This is dangerous nonsense I lost family members (who were perfectly healthy before) and others who were left disabled by it.
Aa for measles parties yes they were common but ONLY for children who HAD ALREADY BEEN VACCINATED! It was to help improve the efficiency of the vaccine as the single dose vaccine was not as effective as the modern MMR.
Please stop spreading harmful and dangerous anti wax propaganda

I think it was chicken pox people did this with. I remember being treated like a leper when I had mumps.

This just isn't true. Measles is terrible, I know as I had it and I was ill and off school for 6 weeks , I was very very lucky I was left blinded or with some other permanent disability . I still remember how much the light hurt my eyes. My step father has damaged eyes from a bad dose of measles.

Same except no one told me it was different to what’s in the red book and I’d had my first abroad so I had no clue and DS was a little over 2 when I had a stroppy call from the nurse asking why he hadn’t had it.

OP I wouldn’t worry as they will have protection from the first vaccine but if you are in a big city, especially London, I think it’s definitely worth a call to the GP to see if they do the second one early. My experience was that they didn’t contact me until well over 6 months later.

‘tis true.

There is a Malory Towers book where Alicia faints in an exam and everyone is frightfully relived when it is ‘only’ measles

Thank god we know better these days.

Yes, I’m surprised to read that too. I’m a 60s child and had the old measles jab that was used before MMR.

People did try to get their DC exposed to chicken pox as it was believed if was easier if caught young- but I’ve never heard of that being done with measles. My DM certainly knew that measles can sometimes strike hard and can be fatal, even if it’s not usually that bad.

My mum's generation had 'measles parties', like we had chicken pox when we were younger.

Where I live (London) we were advised at MMR jab 1 to get the second dose of MMR at 18 months instead of waiting until 3 years to get full protection faster, which is exactly what we are doing next week

@ThePrologue - no I didn't point anything out to the people who hadn't vaccinated their children. I wouldn't class them as friends, but acquaintances who were very sure of their decision. My face probably told them what my thoughts on the matter, though.

Agreed. I'm very surprised that anyone would choose to expose their child to what people considered the nastiest of the childhood diseases. I'm sure the poster didn't intend this, but that narrative fuels the 'measles isn't so bad so we won't bother vaccinating' argument.