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Original poster

I’m Unvaccinated

63 replies

UnDeadPool · 26/01/2019 21:41

Not looking for a fight - just want some advice.

It came up in conversation with my mum today that I wasn’t vaccinated as a baby. I had no idea. Maybe I shouldn’t have but I just presumed that I was.

She said she took me for the first one and it made my arm swell up so never took me back.

She’s also pretty sure I had measles as an infant but isn’t sure as she never took me to the doctor for confirmation.

I can remember having my tb needle at school when I was about 9/10 (I have the scar) and having a jab when I was 12/13 in secondary school (don’t know what this was for)

Is it too late for me to have my vaccinations now? I’m almost 38. Googling just brings up over 60 flu jab

Thanks.

OP posts:

ScreamingValenta · 27/01/2019 11:54

I'm in my 40s and had the illnesses (measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough) not the vaccinations. My mum was the sort of person who followed the doctor's advice religiously and we had other vaccinations, so I'm guessing they weren't standard in the 70s.

I had a rubella vaccination when I was at school aged 12, although I'd already had the illness.

scaevola · 27/01/2019 11:57

"Presumably the single jabs weren’t part of a normal schedule when I was little."

If you were outside the they might not have been. In UK, they were introduced to the NHS schedule in c.1968, and remained available until 1997/98 (not mumps, though).so yes a 35 yo in UK whose parents followed the NHS schedule should have received at least 2 doses of a measles containing vaccine.

If you have not, or you are not sure, and you were born after 1970, then you can have a catch up jab on NHS (other than during pregnancy, because the rubella component is contraindicated then). Before 1970, health planners assume you will be immune (from the wild disease)

Ucangourownwoo · 27/01/2019 12:01

I was revaccinated post stem cell transplants. They just did diphtheria, polio and the other ones that you have 3 doses of. No mmr because they said it's not necessary because I don't work with yoinh kids.

Have a chat with your gp- i wouldn't worry about mmr.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Antenatal & postnatal General health

Ucangourownwoo · 27/01/2019 12:01

Ps they no longer give BCG to kids.

scaevola · 27/01/2019 12:03

The vaccines which make up the DPT jab all antedate the founding of the NHS, so I've assumed they have been in the national schedule since no later than the 1940s. Though they might have been single shots (I can remember tetanus, and DTbeing used, as well as a pertussis containing one)

The take-up rate of DPT was very low in the 1970s because of safety issues. The modern DPT jab is a different formulation to that one.

Original poster

UnDeadPool · 27/01/2019 12:04

I’m thinking the jab I had as a teen was most likely rubella as I think they test for immunity when you have your pregnancy bloods taken, and nothing was flagged up, unless it was rubella I had as a child when my mum thought it was measles.

OP posts:

AornisHades · 27/01/2019 12:08

They did rubella routinely (for girls only I think) in the 80s whether you needed it or not. I'd had the illness but they definitely gave me the jab.
I think I had the measles vaccination in the very early 70s and for some reason my brother didn't. He got measles and I didn't.

Fleetwoodsnack · 27/01/2019 12:26

Bcg was given to teenagers - i think aged 13 or so. If you have the bcg Mark I'd assume that's what you've had.

ScreamingValenta · 27/01/2019 12:32

Yes, I had the BCG in 1987. You had the six needle test below your wrist and then a few weeks later, the vaccine (unless you reacted to the six needles in which case you were deemed allergic to the vaccine and didn't have to have it). I still have a little white scar on my left shoulder from that one!

Fleetwoodsnack · 27/01/2019 12:37

unless you reacted to the six needles in which case you were deemed allergic to the vaccine and didn't have to have it

Pretty sure reacting meant you were immune.

ScreamingValenta · 27/01/2019 12:38

I think that's an urban myth, Fleetwood.

Original poster

UnDeadPool · 27/01/2019 12:44

I had the tb in primary school and the unknown one at secondary

OP posts:

Fleetwoodsnack · 27/01/2019 12:58

@screamingvalentina apparently it meant you had active disease or already infected so the vaccine wouldn't work.

I can see where the myth came from but never realised it wasn't true!

Fleetwoodsnack · 27/01/2019 13:04

Oh wait, just did a bit more reading- reacting does mean you have some immunity due to past infection or similar. The pre test can also be used to diagnose tb.

So we're both right- having it will make you I'll but you also have some immunity. vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/bcg-vaccine
Sorry for the derail op!

ScreamingValenta · 27/01/2019 13:05

Ah, I see! Someone at my school reacted to it and she wasn't allowed the vaccination.

Coffeethrowtrampbitch · 27/01/2019 13:07

Fleetwood you are right, my dad had tb and they did the 6 needle test in hospital to diagnose the presence of active infection.

He said the enormous itchy red lump that developed was the worst part of having tb!

Gwenhwyfar · 27/01/2019 13:07

I missed out on the measles jab even though it existed at the time. I got measles, but don't remember it. I got mumps.
Check if you've actually had the illnesses, which means you may not need the jab.
I think I got tetanus at school, but it's supposed to be updated regularly anyway so...
Got rubella injection around 11 and TB around 13. The TB jab proved to be quite an inconvenience when a colleague had a DS with TB and I couldn't take the skin test all my other colleagues were taking (in another country) as the vaccination would have marked me as positive. There are so many strains that the jab doesn't help much anyway and I had to have a lung xray.

Gwenhwyfar · 27/01/2019 13:09

"yes a 35 yo in UK whose parents followed the NHS schedule should have received at least 2 doses of a measles containing vaccine. "

Not necessarily. It varied from area. I'm coping up to 42 and in the new area my parents moved to when I was 1, the measles vaccine wasn't given. I got measles, but don't remember it.

ForgivenessIsDivine · 27/01/2019 17:10

If you were born in the mid 80's you should have had :
Polio (which you might have missed but this is not a disease that presents a current risk due to the success of the vaccine programme so your personal risk right now for you or your baby are low and you can catch up when your baby gets their 8,12 and 16 weeks vaccinations.)

Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis which you have just had as this is the whooping cough vaccine used. Worth checking if boosters are advised.

MMR : You probably have had Rubella based on what you have said above and you have passed the very risky first trimester for Rubella in pregnancy.

You can check for antibodies to Measles and Mumps, if you are not immune can catch up after the baby is born. The risks to the baby at this stage are low if you were to catch these while pregnant and many adults who will be around your baby will be in similar positions regarding their immunity. The mumps vaccine in particular, wanes so even if you had received the vaccine over 15 years ago, there is a high chance that you would no longer be immune. Measles seems to last longer. If there was wild Measles circulating when you were young, there is a high chance that you are immune.

I realise the knowledge that you are unvacvinated has shocked you but do talk to your midwife about what the risks are right now to you and your baby and then talk to your GP about what to do to catch up with those that might be needed.

TwoGinScentedTears · 27/01/2019 17:26

I'm almost 40. I wasn't fully vaccinated as a child because my GP advised my mum against it because I had measles as a young baby.

I recently made an appointment with my practice nurse to enquire about my vaccination status and they went through my hand written medical records because it was pre computerisation. I was called in and given all the vaccines they thought I needed. (I was enquiringly because I started a new job in a university and they asked me about my vaccines being up to date).

Satsumaeater · 27/01/2019 17:38

I wasn't vaccinated because I was too old for things like MMR so I absolutely got all the disease (and chicken pox). I was vaccinated against smallpox, tetanus and polio - and also rubella when I was 12. A measles jab was not on offer - maybe it was in some areas of the country. Or maybe I didn't have it because I had had the illness.

And that's it. Had a booster for tetanus along the way but otherwise nothing.

Satsumaeater · 27/01/2019 17:40

diseaseS that should say - I had German measles and mumps twice each!

MattMagnolia · 27/01/2019 18:46

If you have an accident they’ll offer you a tetanus jab. If you’ve got to 38. without catching any of the other, vanishingly rare, diseases then stop worrying.

rytonsister · 27/01/2019 19:03

I wasn't vaccinated as a child either so I just had mine with my first child (well any that were relevant anyway)
Ask for advice from gp they'll tell you what you need .

PineapplePen07 · 27/01/2019 19:09

The whooping cough vaccine you get in pregnancy is a combined vaccine which also contains diptheria, tetanus and polio.

You'll be able to have the MMR as an adult once you've had the baby as there's a catch up programme currently for adults who haven't had 2 in the past.

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