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.

I just wish they'd provide singles on the NHS.

I have to admit I'm pro-vaccination. There are many illnesses which were common before vaccines, but could cause death or disability. Vaccinations were a breakthrough and helped nearly wipe these diseases out. I know there are risks to vaccination, but I (personally) feel that the risks of catching measles etc are far worse. Can't imagine how I would feel if DS went on to get ill, if I hadn't had him vaccinated. However, I do understand that not everyone feels this way. MIL has not had her DD vaccinated against anything at all.

More than 1 in 100 children who get measles have serious complications like encephalitis, and many will have permanent effects. In the Dublin outbreak in 2000, 3 children died out of 1600 cases. It's a really nasty disease.

www.ndsc.ie/hpsc/A-Z/VaccinePreventable/Measles/Factsheet/

A college friend of mine was blind from it. People remember measles parties in the 1970s and think it wasn't so bad, but people didn't talk about the children who died or ended up in special schools or homes.

People are used to looking for connections and patterns, but all the MMR studies show that no more cases of autism start soon after a jab than would be expected by pure chance.

Ooooooohhh!

I was just looking for it.
That must be what happened.
Silly old me

It's not just the actually impact of the disease. It also undermines the immune system for some time afterwards (by depleting stocks of vitamin A).
I used to work overseas in developing countries where there was sometimes a fatality rate of up to 33% (in emergencies / refugee settings) - i.e. one in three children who caught it died. This is obviously mostly as a result of poor nutritional status, but there's also a theory that the severity can be related to the degree of initial virus exposure i.e. if you're surrounded by load of kids with it coughing and sneezing over you, you'll get it more severely than if you're just in brief contact with one child. This obviously has implications for child care settings if an epidemic breaks out.

I've had DD1 imunised and will certainly be getting DD2 done. It's a hideous disease. And yes, children did die of it before vaccination in the UK. Roald Dahl's daughter died from measles encephalitis.

Along with other posters, I lost most of the sight in my left eye as a result of measles. My 4 have all been vaccinated.

I had measles as a child. Was fine. My Mum is deaf in one ear from measles. My younger 2 children have not been vaccinated.

My Mum agrees with my decision not to vaccinate against measles as bluntly she thinks being deaf in one ear is better than what happened to ds1.

Most people will tell you to vaccinate. Some who have seen the problems with vaccination will tell you to be cautious. Neither really tells you anything about the individual risk to your children.

I'd advise you to read The Truth About Vaccinations by Dr Richard Halvorsen (he does end up recommending single measles vaccination for most children) and then go and see him if you're worried whether your children fall into a risk group. Actually he can give single vaccinations, so he would talk you through risks before doing it anyway.

Dd had measles aged 11 months.#
She started off with fluey type bug, developed a very high temp very very quickly (as in over a period of less than an hour) and began fitting.

Blue lights to hospital, was intitially tested for meningitis. Breathing needed assistance etc, blue and floppy.
Around 9 hrs later consultant diagnosed measles.
She was in hospital for about 10 days, intitially had been sent home after 48 hrs but was readmitted after second fit. She developed a nasty ear infection.
Took a long time to get back to her usual self.

She is fine now (aged 8) but at the time the doctors had told me she was not looking "hopeful" as they put it.

She is having the vaccines separately next week and into january.

Outbreak in Cheshire in news here

ok, i just don't understand one thing. If vaccinated children are catching measles at the moment, why are unvaccinated children being blamed for the epidemic? I genuinely can't get the logic so someone please explain.

I am really worried too. Ds, 4, had bleeding in the gut from 3 months, has food allergies and some behavioural issues, i have auto immune illness. Want to get him the single measles but very worried about it. Want to protect baby dd, and do the responsible thing, but don't want to risk ds's development. I had measles and was hospitalized aged 11, i know how awful it can be. But research very flawed on the subject. Impossible.

if a child is vaccinated they can still get measles but it will be a milder case.

Well they moved the vaccination forward (from 15 to 13 months). It is less effective at 13 months so maybe they'll need to move it back again.

Also vaccination does wear off. There'll be a bigger pool now of people with vaccine induced immunity rather than naturally acquired so it won't be as good.

Also they may well need to introduce a teen/early adulthood booster. - I don't think measles vaccination will last for life without exposure to circulating measles (naturally acquired might not either - you need exposure to boost your immunity every now and then). \

Why are they blaming the unvaccinated kids? Because it's political.

any evidence for this? genuinely interested. also if vaccinated children can still get measles, they can still pass it onto the vulnerable - babies, pregnant women, so again, why are unvaccinated children [presumably a tiny minority, most have singles or MMR] getting blamed?

If you do have a vaccinated child (and you know it has worked) best thing you can do is expose them to a measles case. Will boost their vaccine immunity so it should last for longer. Of course you never know whether it's worked so I'm not particularly suggesting you try it!

ds1 caught rubella from a vaccinated child dontwanttobejumpedon so yes it does happen.

Idontwanttobejumpedon- half the information is wrong or contradictory. I have some great correspondence from the Dept of Health which contradicts half the stuff they say in public.

It's just easy/lazy to blame unvaccinated children. And Wakefield is due back in the GMC soon. There are usually reports of measles outbreaks the week before each sitting resumes, so they won't miss out on the chance to report this one (never mind that Wakefield never suggested not vaccinating).

It's not that surprising that measles cases have gone up. It's always been cyclical- measles cases were like this when it was freely circulating.

Here look from an American website. They mention the cyclical nature. But they also give a teen/adult dose. Presumably as that generation grows up they'll need to give a mid adult/elderly dose etc:

There was a measles epidemic in Maryland from 1989 through 1991 which coincided with a nation-wide epidemic. A total of 503 cases were reported in the state during these three years. Measles incidence has remained low after the epidemic, with 1-4 cases per year since 1993. During the ten year period (1988-1997), 36% of all reported cases were in pre-school age children under age five, 30% in school age children, and 34% in adults 18 years of age and above. Incidence appears to have been age associated, with by far the highest incidence in pre-schoolers, especially in those less than 16 months of age (with 18% of all cases). Among the 93 16 to 59 month-old cases with known immunization status, only 13% had been immunized prior to disease onset, while among the 116 school age cases with known immunization status, 90% had received at least one measles containing immunization. Prior immunization status was unknown among 45% of the 186 adult cases. A disease transmission setting was reported for 57% of the 552 cases. Among these 316 cases, transmission was reported to have occurred in school in 36% of the cases, at home in 26%, and in health care facilities (doctors' offices, hospitals, and hospital emergency rooms) in 22%.

The total number of measles cases reported to CDC in 1998- 100 -was the lowest number ever recorded in the United States. This reduction in reported cases is part of an ongoing trend which, according to CDC, "? may reflect cyclical changes in measles incidence as well as increases in measles vaccination coverage among school-aged children, increased use of a second dose of measles vaccine among school- and college-aged persons, and increased efforts to control measles throughout the Western Hemisphere."

Notice how amongst school age kids 90% had been vaccinated.

My uncle had it as a child, I am told he nearly died and he has been left infertile as a result. Obviously this is the family tale and whether it's accurate is not for me to say but my mum has always said she knew children who had it in her generation and for some it was really, really serious

Personally I would never not vaccinate. We gave DS the single vaccine.

do vaccinations ever kill people? if administered in doctors surgery, where they know how to treat any reactions safely and immediatly? i haven't looked it up. but i doubt it. unless there's the odd rare case.

do measles ever kill.

yes.it's not a real freak thing. it's possible to reult in death or a very horrible after effect.

this is what makes my decision everytime. ihave never considered wether or not i should immunise my children.

i've had measles/mumps both are horrific.one of my earliest memories. luckily my mum was a nurse and got doctors out quickly as she had seen before in her younger days at work.

my sister also caught scarlet fever. doctor put her in "quarantine" from rest of the family in upstairs, and we all lived downstairs for 2 weeks. passing food to the landing for her to collect. we stayed out in rural countryside. where hospital was very far away. they did everything they could not to pass on illnesses. for some reason we never got mmr till i was in p7. i remember going for it in the school canteen

that was early 90's.

yes.it's not a rare freak thing. it's possible to result in death or a very horrible after effect.

Well I know someone severely brain damaged from a measles jab. It was one of the few were compensation was actually paid so even the health authorities have accepted that one.

I also know a child whose paediatrician believes his big seizures that caused brain damage were caused by the MMR. He's 10 now, doubly incontinent with no speech.

So yes if course vaccinations can cause damage.

is there a weird echo in here or is it me?

mum mum had measles and it left her with partcial hearing.
I couldn't have the vaccine medical issues.. and I had measles.. but got away with it.

all of my dc's had had the jab.

my mum* .. not I don't call mum... mum mum

I nursed a 15 year old girl with post-measles encephalitis - she was profoundly brain damaged and had a tracheostomy.

Wild measles is incredibly infectious and even if it doesn't kill fit healthy children it can have horrendous side effects.

As a parent you have to balance the benefits of vaccinating with the potential risks - any vaccine carries risk, you just have to decide how great the risk is for your child and whether the risk of the actual disease is greater.

Vaccinated children can still catch the disease because vaccination doesn't give 100% protection to 100% of children, but the protection it does confer is usually enough to prevent the full blown disease as there is some antigen memory from the vaccination.