Measles … I don’t understand!

DD2 had to have the TB vaccine in 2004 because a staff member at her nursery had TB.
DD 1 had a TB vaccination as a baby because it was offered in Ealing in 1995. We had moved to another borough before we had DD2.

I remember having the Heaf test at school to check for TB immunity - must have been late 70s.

And as for the person who stated earlier up thread there were polio parties, The Israelis have called a ceasefire so that the Polio vaccinations can take place as a Palestinian child has tested positive. If that doesnt show how bloody serious it is, nothing will

Polio Parties my arse

I can also remember mid 70's having the mobile vaccination van at our school and us being tested for TB immunisation as a family of one of our year had returned from abroad with it

I think the conspiracy theories about vaccines escalated during covid too.

I had measles age 5 in the late 1960s and I can clearly remember feeling exceptionally ill for days and the light hurting my eyes. There were no vaccinations for measles then. My sister was vaccinated age 1 in 1972.

My mum was born in the 1930s.

Measles parties were definitely not a thing.

Child of a close friend has been left with Type 1 diabetes as a side effect of measles. She spent three weeks in hospital.
Never heard of anyone having a measles party. Ever. Madness.

That is my memory of it, I was proper poorly and the GP was out to me daily. Then to compound matters, I was allergic to calamine lotion, I would be screaming and crying and my parents basically holding me down to cover me with the bloody stuff and all it did was made the itching and burning worse. Think it took 3 or 4 days before the GP realised and changed the script to betnovate

I was off school for around a month as well, just lting on the sofa, curtains drawn and windows open to keep me cool. I remember mum wanting to take advantage of being home from work ( to care for me ) to get the garden sorted and me trying to "help" but it was all just too exhausting and sore . Both sisters sailed through it, a couple of days off school until the spots scabbed and that was it

I know someone who lost a baby to chickenpox (baby developed meningitis) and several others that have been hospitalised with complications from it.

I did not say it was mild. I said it was BELIEVED BY SOME PEOPLE to be the best option at the time. My parents didn't agree with it so I never went to any of the "parties". I really really wish folk would read what is actually written before replying.

My Mum was born in 1920s UK.
They had Measles parties.

There was a huge surge of parvovirus (fifth disease/slapped cheek) cases in the UK, US and Europe this year. Once the rash shows you are no longer contagious (and it is highly contagious), so have already passed it on to all and sundry when you thought you just had a mild cold. For most people it’s a very mild virus, but is potentially dangerous to unborn babies (can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, or anaemia in the newborn, if you are unlucky) and the immunocompromised. In adults, it can also cause swollen, painful joints, similar to arthritis symptoms, which can be unpleasant. It was going round the school I work in at the end of the summer term.

And younger. I got the Rubella jab in what we then called 3rd year Juniors (now Year 5 in England) at the age of 10 in 1989.

Edit - and yes it was just the girls at that point. It was explained to us about the risk being really only to unborn babies and that's why the boys weren't getting it

Also to comment on chickenpox, which many seem to think of as a mild disease. Mostly it is, but it can be horrible for adults and some have died of it. I had it in the seventies when I was just eight. It is one of the worst illnesses I have ever had. I could not move off the settee for days and there were hardly any gaps between the spots, including all over my scalp and in my mouth. The doctor came to see me and checked that it was not smallpox as the vaccine had not taken. I was away from school for nearly a month. Thankfully I had had the measles vaccine when I was three or four.

You must have been terrified 😢

Sorry Rayonsunshine is not aimed at you but a previous poster who claimed there were polio parties.

They already have

Good God, after reading the "measles party" stuff I'm now waiting for someone to pop up and announce their grandparents used to have polio parties, too.

The controversy was over the early whooping cough vaccine, which sadly resulted in brain injury to some young children. It was withdrawn from the vaccine schedule when it became obvious it wasn't safe (although a great deal of damage had been done, and it should have been withdrawn sooner, but that's for another thread).
You are right, there was no MMR in the UK in the 70s, it wasn't licensed in the UK until 1988. However the first measles vaccine was licensed for use in the late1960s after extensive trials, and was available throughout the UK (not just England and Wales) from 1970. If your parent didn't get you vaccinated, that was on them, but it was absolutely available. It was also very, very successful in almost fully eradicating the measles virus in the UK. It was a massive success story for public health and the NHS.
Godmum5 I'm sorry but you are 100% wrong with measles being mild in young children, it was and is much more dangerous to younger children (0-5), it remains a serious illness in all ages, but risks increase again after the age of 20. If you went to a measles party your parent(s) was/ were breaking the law. You had to isolate a child with measles.
You or your parent might well be confusing German measles (a different virus from measles despite its name) German measles was unpleasant but had very few complications...unless you were a pregnant, and then there was a significant risk to your unborn child. It's why boys weren't vaccinated for rubella (German measles) at 12/13 years but the girls were.
In the 90s there were a number of outbreaks of German measles among male university students, and the odd female who missed out on the vaccine.

Really? what uk country was that. My brothers and werewere boorn71, 73 and 74 and all had measles jabs. The single ones

Measles is horrific my poor uncle has has inch thick glasses since the age of 2 due to it

But they would have been vaccinated too. Or had the illness as a child.

I had the vaccination but I also had rubella twice as a child!

I would have been very unlucky indeed to catch it while pregnant - even without the vaccination. Also my rubella immunity status was checked when I was pregnant, so presumably they would vaccinate a new mum to make sure she couldn't get it with subsequent pregnancies.

In fact, the one people should be worrying about is fifth disease or slapped cheek. That can endanger an unborn child, and I didn't even know it existed until my son was 3, when he got it, and then gave it to me. And that's precisely the sort of age when a lot of mums would be pregnant with a second, fortunately I wasn't.

In my area they really aren’t ! Every group I go to it’s always talked about and I’m in the minority

I've just looked it up and a MMR vaccine was discontinued in Japan in the early 90s but I don't think it's the same one that is used now.

Yes, but vaccination at 12 would still mean that mothers of younger children - the category most likely to be pregnant - would still be at greater risk of catching it from their dcs, if there was an outbreak doing the rounds.