Measles-anyone have any experience of it?

[hellymelly]

My daughters are not vaccinated and there is a measles outbreak here.We have agonised over vaccination and so far we have opted out but measles does frighten me,and reactions vary,my GP is naturally very pro vaccination,the homoeopath I spoke to feels differently,I have been to several lectures about vaccination and I still can't decide.DH is thinking maybe we should give the girls the single vaccine.Does anyone have any experience of measles?How bad can it get? I had it as a child,everyone did,but I don't really remember what it was like.

So would I,generally,except the GP is more vague than the homoeopath! Also seems accepted generally that a strong family history of allergy/auto immune disease is linked with children having problems after vaccination.I am terrified either way-I guess we will keep trying to research this and try and come to a decision we can live with

My husband woke up this morning looking really rather measley. We phoned all day to get a doctor's appointment - but there are no appointments to be had. So God know what it is.

I am so, so, so glad DS had his MMR booster last month.

From my (frantic) research today, a child with measles is (very) contagious before the spots appear. That means your unvaccinated child could transmit the virus to vulnerable people - small babies, the pregnant, the elderly and the ill. Your kids would be uncomfortable but for teh vulnerable it could be life threatening.

As for the single vaccine, if you are not medically qualified, can you really hand-on- heart over-rule the considered opinion of hundreds of bright and dedicated people who have made it their life's study? Do you really know better?

Please call tomorrow and make the appointment. Sorry for being unsympathetic. It's been a tough day.

My great aunt had it as a child. It left her deaf and dumb.

I was vacinated, but caught it when I was 7. I was hospitalised and nearly died due to complications as it attacked my bronical cords.

It is so unnecessary to take risks in todays society.

My Mum knew a family who lost their only child to measles.

When my sister had it as a baby she was so swollen up she couldn't do a wee. The Doctor visited every day - the 1960s equivalent of being in hospital. I and my other sister had it without any real problems.

A friend of mine has two deaf parents. They became deaf in childhood from meningitis, which I get the impression was from measles.

As someone else has said it is rare for a healthy child to die from measles. It tends to be the children who cannot be vaccinated - because they have a depressed immune system - who tend to die, while the children who gave it to them, who could have been vaccinated, recover.

Had measles when I was little 7 or so... I remember it was hurting my eyes a lot and curtains had to stay closed. I think a was "lucky" because since then I have learnt that it can indeed have serious consequences. My 4DCs have had MMR. Is it MMR that makes you uncomfortable? If so maybe you should consider the measles vaccin on its own. If you are a gainst vaccins alltogether, you will have to make sure within yourself that you will be ready for any consequence that might occure and that you will not blame yourself should your child indeed get measles. BTW, I think you should not feel guilty if you do not get her vaccinated as you are doing it out of concern not because you do not care. All of us do at times make wrong decisions, the hard bit is to cope with consequences.

ds had it last year, age 9 months. It was very nasty and quite scary for a while - he was very very poorly for a few days, with real breathing problems. I just don't really believe the "it's not a serious illness" comments - it really is, or at least can be for a lot of children.

My first ever post on MN was about it - kicked off a major debate. There's lots of pro and anti info on the thread.

When my DCs were little our Gp at the time was also a homeopath so he was very fair at weighing up both sides.
I think it has been put very fairly on here that both options carry risks and which ever way you go you have to be prepared for the consequences.

I had measles as a child. I was only 4 and I still have very strong memories of being very very ill - which I was for 2 weeks. I have vaccinated by DS.

A friend of mine who is a paediatircian recommends the vaccination. In his opinion there is a whole generation who has never seen how bad measles can be.

I'm stressing at the moment because I'm pregnant and a (unvaccinated) child at my son's nursery has come down with measles. I'm waiting for blood test results to find out whether I have put my baby at risk by coming into contact with this child. I know that we naturally put our own children first, and you have every right to be concerned about your family history, but I really wish that this child had been vaccinated.

My poor baby had the measles last year when she was 10 months old - we live in SW London where the vaccination rates are very low. So babies below the age of MMR vaccination are particularly vulnerable to infection. She was extremely poorly and took months to recover, and it was a very worrying time. While I appreciate that everyone has the right to choose not to vaccinate their children, it did upset me very much at the time when the GP pointed out that it was precisely because people were not vaccinating their children that vulnerable groups were suffering.

We also have severe allergies in the family but I wouldn't hesitate to have my child vaccinated - we went ahead and had the MMR anyway at 13 months. If more people saw first-hand how ill a child with measles can be, there would be a much higher take-up of vaccinations.

There has been an outbreak of measles at a school near mine as so many young children have neither had the MMR nor the single jabs - my sister also got mumps recently! Work were getting worried about me as I am pregnant and work with kids that an outbreak of rubella might be imminent and affect me. Turns out I am still immune to all 3... but this has all happened in such a short of amount of time since the MMR scare started I am very pro-vaccine's now.

It's not worth the risk of not having them IMO. It is a judgement call though, if you are concerned about the safety of the vaccine.

My great uncle died of measles. I obviously never knew him - he was my grandmother's younger brother and died aged 5 (in about 1925, so pre-many of the medical treatments available now).

I had measles 18 months ago and as an adult it was not fun. I am now half deaf in one ear. I was so ill, swollen, couldn't breathe.

Get them vaccinated. As StewieGriffinsMom points out, if you have a history of family allergies to vaccinations you can get them separately.

I also had mumps last year, that was a nightmare too.

I wish, wish, wish that there was a higher vaccination rate (though I understand what an emotional minefield this can be). These are awful illnesses.

I wouldn't really trust a homeopath. Healthy children did die of measles. Roald Dahl wrote a very moving piece on his daughter's death and she was healthy before she caught measles. She died of measles encephelitis.
I wasn't vaccinated for measles because my sister had lots of febrile convulsions, which is no longer contraindicated, but I remember being very ill with measles.

I had measles as a child, I nearly died. Fortunately I suffered no long term effects but I was apparently unusually lucky in that, given that we lived in a depressed inner city area and the illness lasted a long time.

Im a childrens nurse and in the past few months looked after 3 very very poorly children with measles...please please all get your children vaccinated fully - If there is worries about serious allergies/family history of problems you can get the immunisations done in hospital.
Thank you

I also came very close with measles as a child (aged 3). I had to stay in a dark room to protect my eyes and my mum had to stay up all night for days keeping my temp down with cold flannels etc,.. Luckily I made a full recovery, but mum really had to fight the hospital to keep me at home because she didn't want me exposed to anything else.

I really think there is so much more research done on having these vaccines than there is in to not having them. I didn't hesitate with my son TBH. I looked in to the singles as my cousin was autistic, but the GP said again, there's less research in to them thatn MMR and reassured me somewhat on the autism front.

I don't know how long it takes with the singles, but with MMR it takes 21-28 days for the antibodies to appear in the blood, so if you do go for a vaccine, and you have a local outbreak going on now, I wouldn't wait much longer...

Soz, protective antibodies appear in the blood within 12 days of vaccination and reach peak concentration within 21-28 days.

ooh, i did am epidemiology masters and can, i think! remember that in 1955 U.S they had a population of 165 million, 3 million measles cases and 450 deaths...of course the complications, disability and later cases of pan sclerosing encephalopathy would have added up into really significant morbidity for thousands of others. it's so hard for us to grasp the nastiness of this disease after a couple of generations sheltered from it over here isn't it. but i've seen in wreak havoc in other countries in this daya nd age. and i always remember that Rhazes, persian medic in the 7thC was the first to distinguish measles from smallpox. i believe he thought measles worse for a community, as it was so much more contagious.

i hope your choice comes OK for you, OP. sorry fotr all this history, just love it. don't get me started on the 'Pox' i love my syphilis history in a weird way.

i have 5 kids and i got all done there really can be serious affects of measles
please speak to your doc and voice all your concerns !! the worse thing about getting them injected is it hurts at the time and they might get a mild rash and temp about 10 days after which is 100% normal

My son 'got' measles from the VACCINE and also got a nice little IMMUNE SYSTEM DISEASE from it as well.

As the jab happy crew did not warn me that its dangerous for a childs immune system to have 3 live viruses injected after months of illness.

Vaccines are not 100% effective and they are also full of poisons and heavy metals.

One size does not fit all.

Most measles outbreaks contain many who have been vaccinated.

As for the OP sounds like you have done your research I would go over it again, and as someone else pointed out its probably to late as you need 2 doses.

like beeper says one size doe not fit all i,m sure the doc will help you decide what to do children do have to be 100& helthy to have the injections normally i know they would'nt give my little one her first lot as she had a small cold !!if there is an out break even children who have had the vacine can get it but its normally only mildly