Cases of measles in school

[Savanna669]

My DS son has seen two cases of measles. In nursery but apparently they have siblings in different year groups. Children who are immuneocomprised are being told to have three weeks off. Parents are keeping their kids off now due to various things. school is stopping mass gatherings such as assemblies. Should we worry?

Middle class hippy mums?

A child in DD's year had measles in reception. They were vaccinated (and their mother didn't broadcast it because she didn't want any anti Vax criticism). Nobody else caught it.

I had it as a kid. It wasn't nice. GP advised not to vaccinate and apologised to my mum when he was doing daily home visits and I had a temperature of 106.

If you read the BBC article posted upthread, you can see which demographics have the lowest vaccination rates.

Some issues are bigger than discrimination

They're not idiots. Vaccine damage is a thing. It's dare, but it happens. I'm sure most parents just do the best they can with the information they have available. It's not your problem or place to get angry about. Vaccinate your own kid and mind your business.

Unfortunately not vaccinating undermines and compromises herd immunity risking others alongside your own family, so it is everyone's business.

I read the whole thread but can't see the linked article.

dont roast me but parents should be fined if they put 31 other kids at risk for not having their sprogs vaccinated fined as in benefits blocked or wages garnished.

This is the result of antivaxers.

It's a fair comment to be honest, why should other kids be put at risk because some irresponsible parents don't vaccinate their child?

Not all of us can vaccinate all our kids. Vaccine damage is incredibly rare - the number of parents choosing not to vaccinate now is not remotely proportionate to vaccine damage numbers.

Their decision to not is now putting more children, including their own, at risk of measles damage because the herd immunity that protected children like my DS who cannot be vaccinated and the previously smaller number of children whose parents chose not to do so is broken.

Jesus.

I can see both points of view. I understand the fear of vaccine damage. But I also have a child whose immune status means they could die quite easily from a virus like this, despite having been vaccinated as a baby, so I would hope people might take that into account if they were able.

Maybe it's disappeared or was on another similar thread. The lowest vaccination rates are in African and Carribean communities. Verified on UK Govt. Website.
Reasons cited are distrust of institutions, lack of representation in clinical trials and racism.
Not the "thick as mince" take of previous posters.🤷‍♀️

I am sympathetic to that but you can't expect a parent to consider your child over theirs when making a serious decision on whether to vaccinate there own child, while having fears of the vaccine ?

I don’t understand why parents are allowed to put their child at risk like that, tbh, or why there aren’t consequences for it? What about the rights of the children to grow up healthy?

Do you mean measles, or German measles (rubella) which is well know for causing serious problems for the foetus in early pregnancy.

Agatha Christie even based one of her murder plots on a case of rubella thoughtlessly inflicted on a pregnant woman. (The Mirror Crack’d)

I think WRT the schools question, ie whether schools make it a condition of accepting a child that that child has been vaccinated, this could result in a lot of unvaccinated kids not having anywhere to go. Which is probably why we don't do it in this country.

It's a difficult problem. I also understand that most people don't know about immune suppression and so on, and I've always said to my child's schools that I would not blame them if he came into contact with something that then caused him significant harm. They do their best but other parents are often unaware of the dangers of sending a sick child to school.

We all do our best. I keep mine away if there's an unusual risk of infection that I know about, and school will also inform me, so that's how we roll. And obvs being super across the prophylactic treatment should he be exposed (only happened once so far)

Are you aure they weren’t talking about shingles? As that is only contagious from the blister fluid if the blisters are covered people with it can usually go about their usual day as long as they feel up to it.

This is why outreach and education is urgently needed

Does anyone know if one dose of the MMR is sufficient? My toddler is on the old schedule, so won't be getting the 2nd dose of MMR for a few months yet. I read that the 2nd dose is only given to cover those rare cases in which immunity doesn't develop from the 1st dose, and that it doesn't actually increase/boost protection. But there's some conflicting information out there... Waiting to speak with my practice nurse next week for clarification, it's concerning!

1 dose is supposed to give 93% protection and 2 doses give 97% protection. As to whether you can get the second dose earlier, it looks like it depends on where you live. It wouldn't happen in the South West as we're not considered an outbreak area.

There was a measles jab since the late 60s though so I'm not sure why being 46 means u didn't get it

I don't think so. Mt DDs have all been tested for rubella immunity when pregnant but not measles.

One of them showed no immunity ( had mmr at a year) so they gave her another after baby boNext pregnancy no immunity again so one more jab

3rd pregnancy no immunity. I think they gave up at that point. 4th pregnancy still no immunity ( she told midwife this would happen before taking the test that time lol)

Also have to consider that even if vaccinated and still get it, chances are the child will be fine.

There were two measles deaths in 2025 and one was an adult and one was an immunocompromised child. Not saying it’s negligible because I 100% agree herd immunity should be a thing and every child should have the vaccine.

BUT if vaccination gives 97% chance measles will never be contracted and 2 out of 4.5 million children died last year, I wouldn’t expect OP to be worried