Here’s how a child dies of measles

[Shuffletoesxtreme]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/child-dies-measles-vaccines/685969/

60 cases in London, where vaccinations are lowest in the country.

My DD was due her measles jab just before the MMR came in. I cancelled it and she was one of the first to get the MMR when it was introduced by the NHS. There were quite a few catch up MMR jabs done in schools in the 1990s, everybody just had them done. Shingles jab next for me.

Measles is absolutely evil. Anti-vaxxers make me so mad.

And an additional set would end up with lifelong consequences.

I think you mean these AREN'T mild diseases. At least, I hope that's what you meant.

wtf are you whining on about.

~100 deaths a year was normal pre vaccine, along with deafness, blindness, and intellectual disabilities being common among the 200-500 cases that resulted in severe brain swelling per year.

We dont want to go back to that.

Thats true with anti vax nonsense, and true with your logical fallacy filled nonsense.

@AnxiousUniParent when were you born? Since the mid 1950's there have been less than 100 deaths per year in the UK from measles, you must have been very unlucky to have been aware of deaths in your neighbourhood

I’m in Aus, not UK but I can’t imagine we would have been much different. In other news, we also had quite a few kids we knew ‘choke on peanuts’ and die, that’s what they thought happened then, no one (including medically) realised it was anaphylaxis. So peanuts were just tagged as a choking hazard for kids. Lots of stuff was different.

I need the herd immunity. Couldn’t have it as a child due to an egg allergy. When I got round to asking about it as an adult I now can’t have it as I’m immunocompromised
the fact I’m in a way relying on other people is scary

A family friend of DH's caught it as a child. He died as an adult from a health issue it caused in 2011.

My mum.was advised not to get my sister and me vaccinated as there was a history of epilepsy in the family ( my aunt). We were born in 1970s.
We had measles at the same time ( I was about 9 and my sister was 6) and I remember being off school for at least 2 weeks and feeling very unwell. My mum kept all curtains shut and I didn't know why. We also got rubella as children.
It's a pretty scary article and frightening to think back on.
Both my kids had MMR.

I agree it's shocking. Might I add that children also develope disabilities? My mother caught measles, obviously a very long time ago, it affected her eyes and she had to wear those glasses that looked like the bottom of bottles. She was so short sighted after the infection that without the glasses she could do nothing. Her children had every vaccination we were offered, measles wasn't available then, but I'm sure we would have been first in line.
I think we have become complacent about certain illnesses, because they have become so rare due to vaccines. We need to wake up to the real dangers for some. They aren't 'childhood illnesses', as though it's just a minor issue. People can die, or be disabled for life.

A story that incorporates what can happen to unvaccinated children. It's like when you see 'based on a true story' at the start of film.

‘América’? You mean Robert F Kennedy?

Way before routine measles vaccinations, I remember being hospitalised with measles aged 5. I will never forget how ill I felt or how scared my parents were. It Was terrible.

I have a friend unvaccinated as a child who caught measles in her 30s. She was dreadfully ill for a long time. She could have died, leaving her kids without a mum.

My dad was left partially deaf after having measles.

@Outwiththenorm as far as I’m aware this was before the recent vaccine changes there.
They were recommending separate shots for the first dose and then I’m assuming as the child would be over 2 or over for the 2nd dose, it was then MMRV… due to existing research I believe. Now they do not recommend MMRV for under 4 (that change could be recent).

In primary school I had a teacher who wore callipers from having polio. She used walking sticks, or was pushed around in a wheelchair by us kids. Life changing/ending diseases that we now have vaccines for, weren’t that long ago.

I had it when I was about 11, I was very very ill and lucky I had no lasting complications,I had 6 weeks off school,I still remember how I'll I felt all these years later. I made sure my ds was fully vaccinated.

I am 48 and am lucky enough to have been born in the vaccination era (although I did have chicken pox and measles as a young child) but old enough to have personally known people who suffered from these preventable diseases. My grandfather died of measles at 80 in 1990, my father developed encephalitis after catching chicken pox at aged 42 in 1983 and nearly died and my great aunt was crippled by polio.

People younger than me don’t have these stark reminders of what these diseases can do. Vaccines are a victim of their own success and I think this is why rates are falling. It’s scary.

My older siblings and I all had the mumps, measles, rubella, chickenpox and whooping cough, and, apart from the whooping cough, neither we nor our parents remember us being seriously ill. Nonetheless, we all had all the vaccines offered, which is why younger siblings did not get all of the ‘childhood illnesses’. We were lucky.

All my children are fully vaccinated. I know two young adults who caught one of these illnesses when younger, despite being fully vaccinated, and who developed life-threatening, life-changing auto-immune disorders within weeks of recovering. One now lives with T1 diabetes, the other with Crohns. They were 100% healthy before, and have no family history of either condition.

My mum had to get vaccinated for everything at university in the sixties because my grandparents were anti vax. She was terrified, and paid for us to have any extra vaccines for our children we wanted.

I think of this whenever you see threads where a mum is getting blasted for not wanting her newborn to mix - I'm in a measles hotspot, and it did make me cautious.

There was a boy in the next street to me when I was growing up, who wore a calliper on one leg. I didn’t make the connection that he’d had polio as nobody ever said the words out loud, just that he had been ill. My mum told me it was polio years later. He managed to run really fast wearing that calliper and used it as a deadly weapon, swinging it at other kids and tripping people up. He was a wee shit, but obviously I wouldn’t have wished such a terrible affliction on any child and maybe he was just very angry at the world. He was eventually able to stop using it after a few years. I never cease to be shocked by people nowadays who play fast and loose with vaccines and who are so bloody complacent.

This is my experience too. My sight was ruined by this infection. I went from being able to sit at the back of the class and still able to see the board well, to squinting even at the front. I too had the thick glasses and still do although modern specs are much more flattering.
I had all the childhood infections except chicken pox which I caught when I was 46.
I made sure my children took advantage of every immunisation. My daughter has done the same with dgd.

To add to all the reasons why measles is a bastard and why it's concerned it's circulating so freely, measles fucks your immune system.

Measles causes immune amnesia. Basically it makes your immune system 'forget' it's immunities and this can last for years afterwards. So not only would your child have to suffer through a measles infection with all its attendant risks, they've then have to suffer nigh on every communicable illness/disease they come into contact with for years afterwards until their immune system recovers, along with the risks of each individual one of those illnesses. That's going to have a huge impact on their development and emotional well-being, not to mention your career when you're constantly ringing up for time off for a sick child.

Not getting vaccinated against the measles is a risk associated with poverty, lack of education etc.