in thinking Measles can't be more dangerous now than it was 15 years ago ?

[Onajourney]

Hi

Wondering if there are any GP's out there that can tell me this ?

My eldest child is 15 and I still have his baby books and they say Measles is a mild disease and just to keep their temperature down etc, they liken it to chickenpox. I remember not being worried about it at all when he and his 11 year old brother were small.

Fast forward 14 years and we have a 1 year old who is at "huge risk from this killer disease" according our GP, but I can't understand how it can have changed so much.

Can anyone tell me, is Measles worse now than it was 15 years ago and if so why ?

Thanks

I can tell from your posts RedWine, all two of them.

Sassy -- I'm the only one. And I'm just giving as good as I get.

Gosh Sassy I just read the rest of your post. Maybe you should read the rest of mine.

"That sounds like SSPE - subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Thankfully a rare complication of measles."

Also a rare adverse vaccine event.

silverfrog said: Measles has been totally re-designated and re-branded. Just like chicken pox in the USA (and prob here too soon)

I think you're right. It's interesting that something like ordinary flu does not seem to have the same scare factor, even though it's thought to be indirectly responsible for thousands of deaths every year in the UK.

I had measles 41 years ago and it nearly killed me.

I got encephalitis when I was one and it very nearly did for me.

But remember, backtotalkaboutthis, redredwine thinks vaccine damage is ok, because at least you don't end up with a dead child (slight paraphrase, but that really is what she said)

So to talk about the mmr is pointless anyway, as collateral damage completely acceptable to her.

Yes, fascicle, it is odd.

But there was the hype over swine flu, I suppose, which never materialized as the rampant killer it was supposed to. Lots of pressure for the vaccination, though.

Yes you are ever so SLIGHTLY paraphrasing there Silverfrog- as I said even if I WAS slightly convinced there was a link between MMR vaccine and autism i'd rather an autistic child than a dead one.

Nothing remotley like I think vaccine damage is okay- there's nothing like using emotive language that posters haven't themselves used to try and score points though.

Because of course, if you don't vaccinated, you're going to end up with a dead child.

no scaremongering there then.

Good luck RedRedWine, I'm with you on this. Thinking about forming a survivors group for people who post pro-MMR comments on these threads and live to tell the tale.

I didn't say if you dont vaccinate you end up with a dead child either- nice try though.

smallwhitecat where are you getting your stats? I'd like to know the numbers if you have them

likelihood of catching measles
likelihood of being permanently damaged / dying as result
likelihood of vaccine damage
likelihood specifically of autistic regression as a result of vaccination

I am a sane parent and I did vaccinate, I'm just interested why you say you perceive one risk to be worse than the other

Do you mind spelling out exactly what you mean by "rather an autistic child than a dead one", then redredwine?

Because try as I might, I cannot get it to mean anything other than autistic (via vaccine damage) or dead (because unvaccinated, contract disease and die)

But obviously you meant something else.

Concern re vaccines have been prevalent for many years. In the 70s my mother refused to let us have the whooping cough vaccine certainly, and I think possibly a few more (my brother and I certainly had German measles, mumps and chickenpox when younger will no ill effects) ...my cousin had the whooping cough vaccine in the 70s and his milk teeth went black. There were plenty of sceptical doctors then who completely supported my mother's stance. In fact the GP directed my mother towards some natural/ herbal/ homeopathic preventative which was probably complete hokum but there was less of a 'party line' then.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad that ppl are no longer dying of measles, but I wonder, as one of the growing numbers with a series of autoimmune diseases, if we'll be able to look back in time and see if there was a health trade-off.

We were discussing the MMR jab and the 'link' to autism. I stated even if I did believe for a moment the vaccine was linked to autism i'd rather my child have autism than face death from encephalitis, which is a known complication from measles. Yes its rare, but so is 'vaccine damage' as you like to call it. There IS solid evidence that says measles can cause encephalitis but no solid evidence to say MMR= autism, so weighing up the risks and benefits i'd rather go with the vaccine.

sorry, I am answering my own question a bit here but have just looked up the stats

10% of measles cases lead to hospitalisation
fatality rates from measles are 1 in 5000
there were 1,217 cases of measles in 2008 (extrapolating the 10%, that's 121 people hospitalised in one year)

Between 2000 and 2006, 21 claims for vaccine damage payment were approved

RedRedWine I agree - weighing up the risks and benefits, I also opt to vaccinate.

And thats far different from me saying if you dont vaccinate your child will die- dont you think? (but more than likely you wont)

more stats to compare like with like

Between 2000 and 2006 there were 21 claims for vaccine damage payments approved

Between 2000 and 2006 there were 1902 measles cases which = 190 people hospitalised, of which (I think) there was one fatality

Pmsl at "vaccine damage - as you like to call it". I think you'll find its a fairly.common phrase...

Can't you see that you are still equaling not vaccination with death? Dd2 is unvaccinated. The likelihood of her contracting.measles small, and then you have an even smaller chance of a rare complication.

Not to mention that encephalitis is also a rare complication from vaccines... (as was also pointed out earlier)

This whole subject is not as black and white as you like to make out.

And the chances of a child contracting autism from MMR- very rare and also unfounded....and for the last time no I am not equating not vaccinating with death, its MY opinion when it comes to weighing up the odds!