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.

And aren’t 1 in 14 of those deaths in ethnic minorities due to inbreeding?

I think the lack of understanding / viability of these diseases is part of why people are comfortable (!) not immunising their children against them.

They don’t realise how serious these diseases are, and the havoc they wreaked in the past.

Sadly, quite a few children will need to die before anti-vaxers rethink their position.

We have had such a luxury in this country for so long that parents of young children just don't understand / believe how bad it gets without vaccinations.

Either that or they do and they are just happy to roll the dice with their children, I dont know.

A friend's 3 year old son died from complications of the flu in 1999. Thankfully there's now a vaccine for that. That gorgeous wee petal was given the best care in Great Ormands Hospital, sadly to no avail.

All my three children got the vaccines available. When I was a child I had Rubella and was quarantined for two weeks. I remember getting the sugar lump for polio and the injection for TB.

I’m 78, I had measles when I was about 8, I remember having to lie in a darkened room for two weeks, luckily I didn’t have any after effects. Both my children were vaccinated, DD had her three done as well, one in hospital as he has a nut allergy. It’s a no brainer.

Does anyone know when/what year they started vaccinating kids in school? I’ve googled it but couldn’t find a clear answer. My child’s vaccinated but I can’t remember if I had the vaccine. We got a letter home from my child’s school/the nhs this week to say measles is in our local schools. I’m having chemo so am just hoping I had the vaccine as a child. I’ve moved GPs over the years so am guessing it won’t be on my NHS record.

OP, you are right to highlight that measles can be fatal, not just a nasty disease with a couple of weeks at home.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cev7edxxzm7o

The NHS does its best. Unfortunately, there are plenty of conspiracy theorists and attention seekers using social media to shout loudly about the dangers of vaccination. I do get it - when you have to make a decision to do something you know carries a small risk of harm to your child, that may seem scarier than just putting the decision off, or deciding not to risk it at all. Unfortunately, you have to face the possible longer-term consequences of not protecting your child, and the statistics are pretty clear - for most children, the risks of not getting a vaccination are much higher than the risk of getting one.

Also, some children and adults can't be vaccinated for sound medical reasons. As they would often be even more vulnerable to these nasty infections than the rest of us, it's exceptionally important for as many others as possible to be immunised to stop these infections spreading.

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that, but in your circumstances I'd be contacting your GP or your hospital team for advice. Very best wishes to you.

I only just learnt that you can still get measles if vaccinated, although it’s rare and usually a milder infection.

I think we should have rules like Australia where (in most states) if you aren’t vaccinated, you cannot attend school.

Now I know my children are less safe due to anti-vaxers (idiots), I am even more in favour of this!

Although my kids didn’t have the Covid jabs so I may be a hypocrite (or idiot), but I feel that was very different.

My children were little in the 1990s when the totally discredited link to autism was just getting going. We knew a woman back then who had decided that her children would have no vaccinations at all - not even whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus and polio. There were no medical reasons for this, she just didn't believe that vaccinations prevented disease. She and her partner were not scientists or medically trained.

My friends and I understood very well that she and her partner had felt able to come to that decision because virtually all the other parents had gone ahead with vaccinations. We'd taken the small risk of vaccine damage for our children so that herd immunity would remain high, and that made them feel safe enough not to vaccinate at all. I hope their children were OK as they grew up. I was amazed to hear that they were flying off to Thailand for a holiday with their unvaccinated pre-schoolers.

You can ask your doctors to do a titre to see if you have immunity. We're all vaccinated, but have all had this done to make sure we still have active immunity.

Hope your chemo is going as well as possible!

The WHO revoked the UK’s Measles Elimination Status on 26 Jan this year. Shameful, really.

We focus on the horrors Kennedy is wreaking but this hasn’t happened in America yet, though it may soon.

My DC were born at the height of the questions over MMR. I had no concerns with DS1. By the time DS2 was due, I knew we already had inflamed gut (which was a link) and DS1 had some behavioural stuff going on. I delayed his vaccinations a year or so, so his system was more mature and we knew more. I was fortunate that herd immunity meant that wasn’t too risky at that point.

Everyone having vaccinations makes things safer for the people who can’t have them, for whatever reason.

We need them.

Was going to take both kids to a small soft play over half term but youngest DD has just turned 1 and is a week away from her first MMRV vaccine (eldest fully vaccinated inc chicken pox she got separately), this thread has reminded me with the drop in vaccinated children it’s likely a bad idea until baby is fully protected first. Thank you 😅

My Dad was a public health inspector way back when all these diseases killed and maimed. I remember getting each and every vaccine as it became available as he was so involved in public health. He was very, very, pro vaccine in an age when people were very sceptical of new things.

We have lost that knowledge now. We are so conditioned to modern healthcare that we believe most things can be cured. even when caught. COVID should have taught us that is not always the case. Unfortunately it has gone the other way, even though millions died of it, people no longer trust vaccines.

Both my Mum and her partner died of COVID pre-vaccine. Started with mild colds, dead within two weeks, on the same day. Brutal.

The chicken pox vaccine has just been added my 2 yr old had the old MMR 6 months ago as it hadn't been added yet. I'm currently pregnant and I'll be refusing the mmrv it's been removed as a first dose in USA and Australia due to increased risk of seizures. I will however pay for a private MMR providing we will be allowed.

As an aside, I missed the BCG when I was a child, because I was off school with a severe case of the mumps. God that was awful. Anyway years later, as part of my work, I visited a family where the little girl was coughing constantly. I adked what was wrong and was told she had TB. She had not long arrived from a country where TB was endemic.
I took myself off to the doctors, and was initially told I was probably immune but he agreed to send me to the TB clinic to be tested. I was told again I was probably immune as at my age ( on the mature side) they thought I would be OK. I insisted I was going to be tested as I visited lots of customers and didn't fancy being exposed to TB. Guess what? I wasn't immune much to their surprise.
We think these illnesses are a thing of the past. They aren't and are likely to return with a vengeance if we aren't careful.
Sorry for the long post, but you get my point I'm sure.

I was very poorly with mumps.

Shingles is really shit too.

My mum was very ill with measles as a child. They had to pay for the Dr to come out pre NHS.

I was given the measles and polio vaccinations as a child.

Today's parents are too young to remember, their parents are probably not old enough to remember much clearly, they are not going to understand the risks as we have been protected by herd immunity for decades. There's too much antivax stuff floating about on the internet to cause doubt. We don't talk about the cost of doing nothing often enough.

I think it's definitely an issue of people thinking these diseases have been eradicated so why vaccinate; forgetting that vaccines are why they've been eradicated or near-eradicated.

I was born in 94. I don't know anyone who's had measles, mumps or rubella (or polio for that matter). Vaccinating was never in question for me; DD has had everything she's able to get. These vaccines exist for a reason.

The MMRV is a fantastic idea (and fwiw, the risk of febrile convulsions after the MMRV is only slightly higher than the MMR - 35 per 100,000 as opposed to 24 per 100,000. If they get measles it's about 2,300 in 100,000). DD was 10 when she got chickenpox and she was so unwell with it; I wish the vaccine had been available to spare her that experience.

For anyone reading whose DC missed out on the chicken pox vaccine (and whose DC haven't caught it!) you can pay to get it done privately, we got DD10 vaccinated when she was around 7. Two jabs a couple of months apart IIRC.

The not so publicised reason for not using MMRV as the first measles containing vaccine in places like the US and Australia is to manage parental perception and improve uptake. Yes there is a slightly higher chance of febrile seizures when MMRV is given first but these seizures are usually brief and not harmful. The move back to MMR first is largely driven by lower vaccine confidence in those countries where even very small scary sounding signals can put parents off vaccinating at all.

Many European countries have used combined MMRV routinely for years without a spike in real harm.

I think it’s important to point this out so people don’t assume it was rolled back because it’s unsafe.

Edited to add: having said this I do get the parental decision to split vaccines if it feels right for your kid. I don’t understand not vaccinating at all (expect under exceptional circumstances of course) but I do understand wanting to manage the risk.

A neighbour of ours caught measles aged 4 and has brain damage from it. Their mental age is 4 and they are now in their 50s. This was before vaccines were available.

My God that's a hard read. I know it's dangerous but didn't really know all the effects it can have. Thank goodness for vaccines.