Do you remember measles and polio?

[Dilbertian]

I remember the children's lido at the park being shut for several months because of polio, and either my class or the whole infant school being shut for several weeks because of measles. Children with measles were quarantined at home, as were their siblings and any friends they had played with just before becoming ill.

This is what living with covid is going to be like. We will take the precautions we can, and respond to infection spikes. We now have 2 or 3 generations of adults who grew up with very little dangerous infectious disease around them. What they think is abnormal, or the new normal, is normal. This is what was normal for their parents and grandparents.

I was born in 1964 and had measles when I was six - can't remember much about it. It was normal, we all had it, and I don't know of anyone who had serious effects. So, my family were lucky.

I also had chicken pox about the same time, as did my sisters. Apparently I was really ill with it, though I can't remember. One of my sisters was delirious (not sure if that was measles or chicken pox) and thought her hand was growing incredibly long.

All I can remember about polio is the sugar lump.

Only one of my sisters had mumps though, which I assume means I'm still vulnerable. Maybe I should ask the GP about a jab for that - I assume it wouldn't be good to catch as an adult.

was a Public Health Inspector, I don't think those roles exist any more?
Public health officers VERY MUCH exist
it is the local authority public health teams who have been making track and trace work
despite being undermined and ignored by the Government
they still track down all notifiable diseases

• Sexually Transmitted diseases
• measles, mumps, whopping cough
• winter flu
• tuberculosis

they should be properly valued and highlighted again
as their work saves lives

I had measles as a small child and was hospitalised ( I probably caught it in hospital - I had only just come out after surgery) I remember children wearing calipers because they had survived polio infection.i I had the polio vaccine and smallpox vaccine. My little brother got a suger cube for one of them- which seemed magical at the time! My little brother has scarlet fever and it was notifiable ( might still be) We all had the usual rubella, chicken px etc. Polio and to a lesser extent scarlet fever were greatly feared, but rubella and chicken pox were considered a good idea to catch young.

Infectious diseases in the UK have not gone away
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/902661/NOIDS-weekly-report-week29-2020.pdf

@Witchend

Vaccines are great. But always have risk of side effects. I knew a child who was blind and another brain damaged as a consequence of vaccines side effects and there are still plenty of victims of thalidomide around here too.

Thalidomide wasn't a vaccine. It was a medicine used for morning sickness. And the issue was that it hadn't been thoroughly tested-it's one of the reasons why we have such stringent testing in the UK.
And actually Thalidomide is still used as a medication-I think in treating epilepsy, though I might be wrong.

I had measles and mumps when I was 3yo. The main thing I remember about measles was sitting feeling very smug while dm told dsis (older) that her birthday party would have to be postponed. I was fully aware that I had caused great irritation and couldn't be blamed for it.
However I believe I was quite ill for a while, and was also quite ill with mumps as they couldn't get my temperature down. I'd only shortly recovered from pneumonia and a long stay in hospital, so I think there was probably that at the back of it.

Thalidomide is also used to treat the blood cancer multiple myeloma--or a form of it is.

Vaccines are great. But always have risk of side effects. I knew a child who was blind and another brain damaged as a consequence of vaccines side effects and there are still plenty of victims of thalidomide around here too

This is why there are anti vaccers around. It is a basic misunderstanding of science
Thalidomide was not a vaccine
There were some side effects of some early vaccines which used high doses, or live vaccines which had side effects.

Current side effects are tiny.

And whooping cough can cause brain damage
Measles can leave you deaf and blind
Mumps leaves boys infertile

etc

I had measles as a young child in the late 1960's/early 70's. I also had chicken pox, German measles and mumps , and so did most of my friends . As a child these were just illnesses which everybody had and you were off school with for a couple of weeks . I had no idea that they were considered dangerous until I saw vaccinations coming in for the next generation . I wonder now how these illnesses seemed to our parents because as children they weren't a cause for worry.

I managed to avoid just about all childhood illnesses, luckily.

All of my DDs were vaccinated against everything possible. DD1 though did still manage to get mumps after her first year at university. She had even had an MMR booster before she went.

All three have had chickenpox as the vaccine wasn't routinely in the vaccination programme when they were babies and I hadn't been aware that I could possibly have got it for them.

I had measles as a child- I was pretty ill.

My own kids didn't get their MMR until 14 though.

My cousin had polio. He should have had the vaccination just after it was brought out but he had a cold so it was delayed. In that time he got pllio but was lucky and was just left with a weakened arm. Then in his 50s he developed post polio syndrome and died.

@Porcupineinwaiting

My dad and his sister both had measles in childhood. Both lost significant amounts of hearing and became profoundly deaf later in life.

I thought it was rubella not measles which did that ? I've had chicken pox, whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella and scarlet fever.

pepperycinnamon so can measles. I went to a village school in the 1960s - about 70 pupils. Unusually for mainstream schools at the time there were 3 pupils with disabilities. 1 was deaf and had poor eyesight as her mother had rubella in pregnancy, 1 was deaf from measles as a toddler and 1 had learning difficulties from brain damage caused by measles.

Rubella is generally a very mild illness with few consequences. Except when a woman is pregnant. If a pregnant woman catches rubella it can damage the baby in many ways, including causing deafness.

Measles can cause deafness and blindness in the person who has the illness.

I was at school with a boy who was seriously ill with Polio.
He was in hospital for a long time then wore what were termed leg irons (leg braces) for years. This was the late sixties/ early seventies.

I remember being very ill with measles. I wasn’t allowed to look in a mirror but I sneaked a look and my face was swollen and mottled red.
I had to stay in bed, with the curtains drawn as measles causes problems with eyes. I wasn’t allowed TV until I recovered but I was allowed the radio and this caused me to develop a life long love of BBC Radio 4. Although that is waning a bit now but that is another story!
When I finally recovered the doctor ordered my soft toys to be burned to stop the spread of infection.
My lovely gran put my beloved koala bear in the back of her oven until she deemed that he was disinfected! (If a bit singed).
I was eight when all this happened- it was traumatic. Thank goodness for the vaccine!

Is it measles that can wipe out your immune system and basically set you back to when you had no immunity to anything?
My brother is deaf in 1 ear from mumps

I am 40 and have a friend who is deaf in one ear from measles as a baby. We also have family friends whose DD was hospitalised (in GOSH intensive care) as a baby with measles in the early 2000s (too little for the vaccine).

@dementedpixie

Is it measles that can wipe out your immune system and basically set you back to when you had no immunity to anything? My brother is deaf in 1 ear from mumps

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191031204630.htm

I mentioned above about a year after measles i really suffered badly with tonsilitis . I was off school for weeks. I think i read in some old research that children were more likely to die in the 3 years following measles than those that did not have it.

"Green Monkey Disease" That's Marburg fever, isn't it?

I can remember measles, chicken pox and mumps being the three things you expected to get some time during your childhood. I was sent home from school with mumps, my mother said "I can't have looked at you that morning".

I think we all took it in our stride because our parents could remember worse diseases - polio vaccination had just arrived, my aunt spent months in an open-air TB clinic, diphtheria was a problem within living memory.

I had measles when I was 5 - I'm in my 40s but the vaccination was around then so I'm not sure if I was just unlucky or wasn't vaccinated. The main thing I remember is being upset that I couldn't play my plastic trumpet in the school nativity.
My uncle had polio - he's 70 now and suffers a lot with post-polio syndrome but is still going strong. He's only just agreed to start using a crutch to get around (very stubborn). He was in hospital with one of the people who was on TV a lot back in the day because they lived in an iron lung (can't remember the name now).

@countrygirl99

pepperycinnamon so can measles. I went to a village school in the 1960s - about 70 pupils. Unusually for mainstream schools at the time there were 3 pupils with disabilities. 1 was deaf and had poor eyesight as her mother had rubella in pregnancy, 1 was deaf from measles as a toddler and 1 had learning difficulties from brain damage caused by measles.

measles is usually the one that causes hearing and sight issues in children. (and worse, it can cause death)

Rubella is rarely a problem as a disease, it is mild and you may not even notice you have it.
But if you catch it in the first trimester of pregnancy can cause massive severe damage to the baby. Ranging from hearing and sight issues through to profond and multiple learning disabilities. The child I know who had been exposed in the womb was non responsive, non verbal, couldn't sit, talk, feed, communicate and was deaf and blind.

Rubella is rarely a problem as a disease, it is mild and you may not even notice you have it
The problem is it quite difficult to catch as a child. Epidemics only come around every 6 or 7 years. As i said i was a teen and caught it off my mum who was in her late 30s, which is why so many babies in the womb are affected.

Rubella is rarely a problem as a disease, it is mild and you may not even notice you have it. But if you catch it in the first trimester of pregnancy

That's how I know I had it, when I was pregnant with my eldest my neighbour was pregnant with her second and her eldest got rubella, she told me and the GP tested to see if I was immune to it or not - I was fortunately.

I had measles as a child and my eyes were damaged by the virus. It is a serious illness, I still don’t understand why people don’t get their children vaccinated against it.

I had measles as a child and very nearly died from it apparently. I would have been 3. I remember being in the hospital with Didi in the next bed to me. I don't remember feeling ill, but it was in the days when doctors would come to the house, so the doctor had come and tried to spoon water into me, then I ended up in the local hospital and then the specialist paediatric hospital 50 miles away. My mother recalls it well, clearly I only recally Didi in the next bed and we were best of friends - I must have been in a couple of nights. Still wish I could find that Deedee or Didi. We were such good friends as only toddlers could be.

My father has smallpox vaccine scars. My mother is 2 years younger and wasn't vaccinated. My father's scars are quite big.

A man down the road from us (probably 60 now) had polio as a child and had one leg shorter than the other.

@Nicedayforawedding can I ask how you know it was the measles that damaged your eyesight? I am horribly short sighted and had measles.