Measles … I don’t understand!

[dol1]

Dd has had the vaccine at 12 months. I’ve been watching news and there is apparently a ‘surge’ in cases now. The second vaccine for it isn’t until she’s 3… does this mean she could well get measles between now and then?

Enjoying the Blyton reminiscences and all the quarantines for measles and scarlet fever. I remember the twins being unable to go back to St Clare's because of a measles quarantine, Alicia failing 'cert' because of an unpleasant dose of the same, Dinah's eyes giving her trouble in the Adventure Series, and Irene in Malory Towers threatened with isolation in the 'San' for not returning to school with a health certificate.

The stuff about 'measles parties' is far more alarming and more reminiscent of Poe's 'The Masque of the Red Death'. Such a good thing we have reliable vaccines now and such craziness is no longer necessary ...

People don't seem to realise or care it affects others too
I haven't had my MMR as I was severely allergic to egg and my mum was told not to give it to me
Then I became severely immunocompromised as an adult and can't have it still
I've had my rubella vaccine separately but I've no protection against mumps or measles

This won’t help. The HE community is already huge and the vast majority do not vaccinate. You’ll only make that a bigger issue if non vaccinated children can’t go to state nursery / school. I was banned from one home ed group once after my dc had the flu spray as they were all petrified over ‘shedding’ . I pointed out that the real flu virus is everywhere ?? So why was there a concern over a weakened version ??!! Nobody could answer me

The vast majority of the HE community is vaccinated. Yes there is probably a greater proportion who are not but they are still a small minority - although they do tend to group together.

I had shingles in lockdown- Absolute agony
Why oh why is a vaccine only available to the over 70’s??

It’s possible to have shingles more than once

The pain is excruciating.
Can last for many months / years after the blistering has dried up.
Post - herpetic neuralgia.

Why only over 70’s when any age can develop shingles?

Cost v risk…..under 70s less likely to have any complications that will cost the nhs service

The thing was that there was NO VACCINE and no protection and it was believed that the risk of serious effects increased as you got older. This meant that some people (not my parents) thought that of all the options, the safest one was to get it over early at a time when the child was otherwise in good health.

You can buy it privately. I am eligible and looked into it and apparently the protection only lasts around 4 to 7 years depending on which research you read.

Well, that could all change if Trump gets back into office. There's a document called Project 2025 that talks about removing the CDC from recommending vaccines, which usually leads to schools mandating vaccines.

More about it in this discussion

I don't think the UK would ever go this way but who knows?

My dd2 was born in Abu Dhabi over 40 years ago - she was given the MMR at 12 months, it was routine. TBH I find it astonishing that the U.K. took so long to give it routinely, especially when rubella is such a risk to unborn babies - and mothers of babies and young children are exactly the category most likely to be pregnant and therefore at risk.

I was born in the 70s when we had the vaccine as a matter of course. Measles had almost died out in this country until Andrew Wakefield came along

There was controversy about a measles vaccine (in Japan I think?) and the MMR was already controversial before Wakefield came along.

And I was born in the 70s and there definitely wasn't an MMR or measles vaccine available in my childhood (in my part of the UK). I had the rubella vaccine at 12.

As I've just said in my post above - girls were vaccinated against rubella at 12 - it was routine before the MMR was given.

My mum had a spate of getting shingles every couple of years and then she was finally given the vaccine when she was finally in the very narrow age group for receiving it.

Since the vaccine - no more attacks - and she had the vaccine some years ago now, way before covid. It seems cruel that they'd prefer to let people suffer when the vaccine is obviously very effective.

Yes, but vaccination at 12 would still mean that mothers of younger children - the category most likely to be pregnant - would still be at greater risk of catching it from their dcs, if there was an outbreak doing the rounds.

I've just looked it up and a MMR vaccine was discontinued in Japan in the early 90s but I don't think it's the same one that is used now.

In my area they really aren’t ! Every group I go to it’s always talked about and I’m in the minority

But they would have been vaccinated too. Or had the illness as a child.

I had the vaccination but I also had rubella twice as a child!

I would have been very unlucky indeed to catch it while pregnant - even without the vaccination. Also my rubella immunity status was checked when I was pregnant, so presumably they would vaccinate a new mum to make sure she couldn't get it with subsequent pregnancies.

In fact, the one people should be worrying about is fifth disease or slapped cheek. That can endanger an unborn child, and I didn't even know it existed until my son was 3, when he got it, and then gave it to me. And that's precisely the sort of age when a lot of mums would be pregnant with a second, fortunately I wasn't.

Measles is horrific my poor uncle has has inch thick glasses since the age of 2 due to it

Really? what uk country was that. My brothers and werewere boorn71, 73 and 74 and all had measles jabs. The single ones

The controversy was over the early whooping cough vaccine, which sadly resulted in brain injury to some young children. It was withdrawn from the vaccine schedule when it became obvious it wasn't safe (although a great deal of damage had been done, and it should have been withdrawn sooner, but that's for another thread).
You are right, there was no MMR in the UK in the 70s, it wasn't licensed in the UK until 1988. However the first measles vaccine was licensed for use in the late1960s after extensive trials, and was available throughout the UK (not just England and Wales) from 1970. If your parent didn't get you vaccinated, that was on them, but it was absolutely available. It was also very, very successful in almost fully eradicating the measles virus in the UK. It was a massive success story for public health and the NHS.
Godmum5 I'm sorry but you are 100% wrong with measles being mild in young children, it was and is much more dangerous to younger children (0-5), it remains a serious illness in all ages, but risks increase again after the age of 20. If you went to a measles party your parent(s) was/ were breaking the law. You had to isolate a child with measles.
You or your parent might well be confusing German measles (a different virus from measles despite its name) German measles was unpleasant but had very few complications...unless you were a pregnant, and then there was a significant risk to your unborn child. It's why boys weren't vaccinated for rubella (German measles) at 12/13 years but the girls were.
In the 90s there were a number of outbreaks of German measles among male university students, and the odd female who missed out on the vaccine.

Good God, after reading the "measles party" stuff I'm now waiting for someone to pop up and announce their grandparents used to have polio parties, too.

They already have

Sorry Rayonsunshine is not aimed at you but a previous poster who claimed there were polio parties.

You must have been terrified 😢

Also to comment on chickenpox, which many seem to think of as a mild disease. Mostly it is, but it can be horrible for adults and some have died of it. I had it in the seventies when I was just eight. It is one of the worst illnesses I have ever had. I could not move off the settee for days and there were hardly any gaps between the spots, including all over my scalp and in my mouth. The doctor came to see me and checked that it was not smallpox as the vaccine had not taken. I was away from school for nearly a month. Thankfully I had had the measles vaccine when I was three or four.