Should adults 40+ have a measles vaccine?

[Northernsoullover]

I was listening to a really interesting podcast today about measles. I was feeling all virtuous for having vaccinated my children (because mine were young when the Wakefield nonsense hit the headlines and I was initially in doubt) when it dawned on me..
I have never had a measles vaccine. I am of the age where girls were taken to one side and given the rubella as a single vaccine.
I have had a Google and it says MMR started around 1988. Therefore I assume there are thousands of unprotected adults floating around.
I'd be interested to know if anyone else has ever worried about this? Can you ask a GP for it?
If anyone is interested in listening to the podcast I'll pop a link up.
I'd also be interested to hear from any HCPs regarding adults and measles. I know I have had rubella (aka German measles) and mumps but I definitely not suffered measles.

Ahh,ive just read that German Measles is Rubella. That why I caught it as a child then as I was only immunised against measles (before the MMR). Every days a school day.

I missed 2 months of school from the measles. I couldn't walk for 2 weeks looking back my mum thinks I should have been in hospital as l was so delirious. I've had life long health problems and think they are linked. I wasn't vaccinated. Born in the 70s. I would consider it of I were you.

I had the single measles vaccine as a baby, if you had only one vaccination the immunity may wane and you really consider the mmr( I haven't yet although I should due to a severe needle phobia)

Im 57 and queued up at school for measles vaccine, but i wasnt allowed it because my sister still had febrile convulsions. I caught measles when i was about 8 or 9 and was really ill for a week or so, my sister had it as well.
I also managed to get rubella a few weeks before i was due to have that. All 3 of us caught it from my mother!

I am in my 50s. I remember having the rubella jab at school.

I had mumps when I was in Primary School and I remember my DF and DB not being allowed near me.

I am sure my DB had measles so I assume neither of us were vaccinated against that.

Both dds have had mmr, my dgran went deaf due to measles and dhs uncle actually had to have an eye removed when he was five due to rare ocular complications of measles!)

I have actually had the MMR vaccine today. I went in to see the practice nurse about something unrelated and she said the surgery were about to start a campaign to look at offering the vaccine to women in their 30s and 40s and did I want it whilst I was there. I have to go back in 4-8 weeks for the 2nd course.

My sister had mumps earlier this year, she’s a teacher and possibly caught it from one of her pupils.
I had whooping cough 4 years ago and I’m still suffering with the affects of it.
We are both in our late 30s. I have no idea what vaccinations I had as a child. The only one I remember having was my BCG when I was at high school.

GrumpyHoonMain, when/where were measles vaccinations compulsory?
I've never heard of such a thing in England.

I'm about to turn 53, I haber measles vaccine as a child and rubella vaccine at high school.

I even have a scar from the smallpox vaccine, it makes me part of history.

I'm 45 and never had measles/mumps vac growing up (had all the ones available except whooping cough, which was advised against as I was premature).

When ds was born 10 years ago measles was breaking out locally and HVs kept telling me he'd be immune becsuse I was breastfeeding. I pointed out that was wrong given I'd never had measles nor the jab myself! I got offered MMR and had it (v glad as measles came round again when I was pregnant).

They were never compulsory in the UK. But most people were a lot more pragmatic when you personally knew kids who died or were seriously ill as a result of things like Diptheria, Tetanus, Polio, Whooping Cough or Measles/etc.

I had my measles vaccination in 1979, Rubella in 1983/4. And I got myself a booster of everything I could aged 16 along with a later DTP aged about 30 when the ungrateful bastarding Best Cat in the World took a chunk out of my thumb as I was saving her life.

DP can only remember having a lump of sugar, which meant the DTP, and I know his father is a twat doesn't believe in vaccination, so it's likely that he never had MMR and hasn't had any boosters or later vaccinations. He doesn't remember ever being ill, but he did grow up in the arse end of nowhere, so he probably benefitted from herd immunity.

As he's already gone against his father's views (not that the stupid git knows) in having flu vaccinations for my protection/benefit, because he's seen how ill I was with influenza when we first started dating (bad timing - the vaccine wasn't at the GPs for another 3 weeks), he's going to find out if he can have all the other ones now.

I think having them as adults makes perfect sense - not all of us would have been vaccinated, record keeping was less of a thing when it was all done on paper/notes can be lost over thirty-odd years, and when people can't be relied upon to get their children vaccinated, making sure that those of us in that 'not quite so rigorous age of recordkeeping' are vaccinated is another way of protecting the immunocompromised, the allergic and the too young.

I'm 43 and had measles as a child. I'm not sure if I was vaccinated as my parents were pro vax. Anyway, I should be immune.

We live in an area with a measles outbreak at the moment. My DP (38) didn't have a vaccination record (probably had had it but not 100% sure). As we have a 6 month, we wanted to be extra cautious so he asked a GP and they recommended that he just have the vaccine. There is no harm having it again even if you are already immune. Is just ask for the vaccine if you are worried.

This is useful

I"m interested in the idea that it wipes your immune system. I had measles as a teenager. But the reasearch I reach on it suggests that it only destroys your immune memory for a few months, perhaps as long as a year or two, with an increased frequency of illnesses such as colds etc in that time.

But is it true that it can actually erase it long term? i.e., that vaccines and illnesses you had as a younger child will then not provide immunity? (I also had mumps and chicken pox, and had vaccines for measles, rubella, and all the other standard ones by that age - just the measles didn't work). Should I be worried now that I need to get anything repeated or tested?

I know there was a lot of scare stories about the research in the media a couple of years ago, about 'wiping immune memory', but it didn't actually seem that bad when I looked into it a bit.

I'm mid 40s and as a child I had measles, mumps, German measles, chicken pox (and scarlet fever for good measure). I know I had all routine vaccinations. GP dithered about measles and decided not to bother because it was designed for 18mos and I was already 3. He did apologise when he was doing home visits whilst I had measles and a temp of 106...

I've since started working for the NHS and they insistent that I had an mmr...

Current guidance is anyone born after 1970 without two documented doses of triple mmr vaccine can start the course/mop up, regardless of whether you know if you've had measles or not. I'm a practice nurse and are currently offering it to this age group. Be aware it's a live vaccine so not everyone can have it, and you mustn't be pregnant or get pregnant up to a month after the second dose.

There is also now some question about how long the mumps vaccine is effective, with a rise in cases of older teenagers. So more than one good reason to check you're covered.

@Bimbleberries it doesn't wipe it permanently but listen to the podcast. Its really interesting and presented by two American Epidemiologists.

I'm approaching 40 so pre MMR. I remember having mumps and rubella as a child. The rubella vaccine was offered to girls in secondary school to protect against the effect in pregnancy. I also remember a round of measles jabs being given at school because there was fear of an epidemic in the area. This was around the mid 90s.

I'm 55 and although I don't know what vaccinations I had as a child I definitely remember lining up at school to be jabbed on a number of occasions, so I'm assuming I had whatever was on offer at the time. I do know that I had measles and German measles as a small child though and mumps and chicken pox at around 7 or 8. As this seems to be the case for a number of others of a certain age who have posted, it would seem that there are only a minority who are unprotected so a 40+ vaccination programme is not required. Not sure what availability would be if you individually approached your GP practice to ask for vaccines but I'd be surprised if they refused. My DS didn't have MMR until he was 16 ( he was a Wakefield toddler) and GP was only too willing to give it - and we weren't in an area with a measles outbreak.

Is it not mumps that didnt have a single vaccination before MMR? I remember my sister having mumps one Christmas. My younger brother is deaf in 1 ear due to mumps as he didnt get the MMR which was out by then as my dad didnt want him to have it. I'm 46 so wouldn't have got MMR either

I was born in 1970 and had all the recommended vaccinations at the time (my mum's family had lost several kids to diseases in the 1930s). So I know I had a single measles shot. Around 1977ish there was a big measles/mumps/rubella outbreak in South Wales and I was one of the few kids not to get any of them at the time, which indicates a lot of the other kids were insufficiently vaccinated.

I'm now in Germany and asked my GP recently if I should have a booster shot because I didn't get a double dose as a kid, and she said the combination of natural immunity (I'm very close to the pre-1970 cut-off point) plus the single shot would be enough.

There isn’t a single measles vaccine AFAIK - looked into it for DCs. I think you have to travel abroad.