The MMR vaccine

[Palmsun]

How is the MMR vaccine administered?

Is it one or two injections?

I had a look at my vaccination history and it looks like i got one MMR injection.

I read online there's two doses or there's a booster.

I would like to find out if it's one or two injections before I approach my GP with this information. I think maybe I might need a booster/second dose if it's given in two injections.

Thanks for the clarifying.

Do we need to get boosted now as adults if we only have a single shot?

Or are we deemed fully vaccinated and immune?

Should I be cancelling my appointment with the nurse I wonder. Maybe I acted too prematurely after reading my vaccine history.

I'm 37 and when I was small the MMR was only one dose. However I also had separate measles injections as a toddler and in primary school, so hopefully I'm covered! I read something recently that said people in their 40s need to check their records because they're young enough not to have immunity because everyone got measles, but too old to have had the MMR in any form (can't remember where I read it though sorry 🙈)

Are people with one MMR deemed to be fully vaccinated and immune, I wonder?

I was born in 1979. Pretty sure, as Antagonishy clarified, it was just a measles vaccination. Me and my older brother had mumps in the early 80s. I was vaccinated against rubella at school when I was about 13, along with all the other girls in my year, they didn't bother with the boys at that time.

My mother isn't sure about my vaccines about when I was a baby.

That memory is not unlocked for me now that the MMR was only for the girls and not for the boys? Why was that I wonder? That's awful.

I know a nurse who said she had a patient who turned blind on her ward who had measles and he was a man. Surely men should be vaccinated too against MMR.

@Palmsun I went to school in Scotland, so it might have been different where you were. It was just the rubella vaccination that was girls only. It was a new thing, and they offered it to all girls in 1st year (age12/13) but not the boys because the disease itself is so mild and only deemed dangerous if you're pregnant, so only for the girls (nobody back then was thinking about boys infecting women!) That must have been 1991 or 92, so probably soon after they dropped it, because younger children would have had the MMR.

Rubella being the R from MMR (measles mumps and rubella). As I said before, I was vaccinated against measles as a baby, but not mumps (which is more important for boys - if they get mumps after puberty it can result in impotence).

Ooh yes, Rubella vaccine at about 12. Forgot about that. Because of the harm german measles can do to the unborn child (if you catch it when pregnant), so only girls got vaccinated. Of course, that wasn't enough to achieve herd immunity, so of limited use. They did a similar thing with the HPV vaccine when it first came out as it prevents cervical cancers, so it was just for girls. Now they've figured out it prevents oral cancers in boys and so is available to both

Was I too premature rushing to make an appointment with the practice nurse? Will I continue with the appointment or cancel?

Apparantly two doses of MMR is effective and I only ever got one.

I haven't a clue what to do.

I have no idea about my baby vaccines status but my mother is fairly certain I got no measles vaccine as a baby.

I thought one dose of MMR is about 93 percent effective against measles. Not sure about mumps and rubella though.
I had single measles vaccine in the 70s. Caught mumps and it was horrendously painful, I remember it clearly. Had rubella vaccine at school around 12.

I don't want to mess around with that 7% espically considering I was sick for the past month from what started as a cold.

I dread to think what measles would do to me.

Apparantly women are checked when pregnant if they have immunity to MMR and many people find out through pregnancy that immunity has waned.

Apparantly immunity can wane.

I do t know if I am immune or not to measles.

Go to your appointment rather than overthinking it.

I'm 54 and got the single measles jab when I was too young to remember and the rubella jab in middle school - German Measles can be extremely harmful to a foetus or lead to miscarriage which is why only girls were targeted, at the time.

Despite no immunisation against mumps, I managed not to catch I from my younger brother when I was 15.

Sunny is right, its cheaper, quicker and just as safe to give another dose. I would be v surprised if they trawled medical notes to find archived, historic batch numbers of old vaccines. ( Though the national vaccination database might do that, but individual practices won't). There is absolutely no point in doing bloods to check for immunity,

You'll be fine post vaccination; tends only to be the littlest (13 months) who react a week or so after vaccination with MMR. ( Not a bad thing as it shows their bodies are responding well to protect them in the future).
Very few 3 year olds react to the second dose, so you'll almost definitely be fine. But if in doubt, check with your PN.

Some people have multiple doses...for instance, if you are < 6 months old and your parents are taking you backpacking round the Indian sub continent, you'd need a dose then but also a dose at 13 months and again at 3 years ( the dose at 6 months will not be sufficient as the immune system is not sufficiently mature to generate longer term immunity).
Some children and teens undergoing chemo need regular doses too, so it's perfectly safe to have more doses if in doubt.
It's a greater risk to be suboptimally covered than to have more doses.

All people need a minimum of two doses, that's why there was/is the 'catch-up' campaign to ensure optimal population coverage.

As a grim anecdote...a GP friend of mine in Europe told me a story of a patient of his who belonged to a religious cult and didn't vaccinate. His pt, a female, became pregnant with her partner, also from the cult. She became infected during pregnancy and her baby developed Congenital Rubella Syndrome, and was born severely developmentally compromised. Horrible story, but sadly a reality and one that can extrapolate along generations.

OP, you'll be fine and full marks for being robust and responsible in sorting it all out.