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.

Oh and I've had chickenpox and mumps as has my brother, but my brother has had mumps as an adult!

can I ask how you know it was the measles that damaged your eyesight? I am horribly short sighted and had measles.
Its a well known side effect
I know several people who had measles as kids and ended up with damaged eyesight

I had measles as a child and from the moment I had probably been in contact was quarantined until I was over it so as not to pass it on. My younger sister , 56 now, was vaccinated. I remember feeling really ill and understanding that DSis was frail and needed to be protected from it. There was plenty of community knowledge of children who had been disabled by measles. It was taken seriously.
I am too young to remember polio but did know someone a few years older than me who was disabled as a result of it. I also had a colleague of my own age who was born deaf as a result of her mother having had rubella our n pregnancy.
We were vaccinated against smallpox but didn't have the really big scars as a result of the response just a small mark.

I’m 42 and remember measles. I was vaccinated but caught it anyway, I’d have been about 5.

I do remember feeling absolutely awful, and my poor mum can recount it like it was yesterday- the GP came out in the night to see me and told my parents that if my breathing worsened they were to ring 999. Needless to say, in typical child style, within 24 hours I rallied greatly and wanted to play out!

I still recall being in the hospital and just wanting to play!

I was born in the early 70s. I don’t remember messers but I remember a child locally who had his legs in callipers from Polio, he was only a few years older than me. I remember the child sharif collecting boxes too.

My brother had mumps, I had Rubella abd a girl at school had diphtheria. This was 1970s central London. DBro is nearly 10 years old than me though, he probably predates the mumps vaccination. I had Whooping Cough too, mid 80s, despite vaccination.

DM had a copy of the Dr Spock baby and child health book from the 1960s. There was a page that summarised the 7 illnesses that a child could expect to get by the time they were in high school. Chicken pox, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria .... I can’t even remember the rest, but all stuff that can be vaccinated against now.
The same book also stated that abortion was often used to relieve hyperemisis.. Different times.

I had measles in the mid 80’s before MMR was introduced. My mum was advised not to give me the measles vaccine by my GP due to family history. I remember being very poorly.

I had measles as a child (despite having all the vaccinations). I'm not yet 40. I also had mumps, German measles - basically everything. I had one of them twice (that could have been chickenpox though.)
My uncle - mid 60s - had childhood polio. He survived moderately unscathed. It restricted his arm & leg growth a little, he'd probably have been about 6 inches taller if he'd not caught it. And they aren't straight. And he has constant pain in his limbs. But not much muscle atrophy. So he got off light.
I nearly lost a cousin to meningitis.
I lost a cousin to whooping cough.
A local child lost both arms & legs to meningitis a while ago.

I don't understand Antivaxxers.

I had chicken pox, but not mumps or measles. One dBro had both, one just had mumps. One of them is infertile, almost certainly as a result of the mumps.

Can someone younger and cleverer than me link to an article by Denis Thorpe in today’s Guardian (G2 page 7) please? Well worth reading as it’s (partly) about diphtheria, fortunately now just a memory

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/30/denis-thorpe-best-shot-a-child-in-1954-getting-a-diphtheria-vaccine

Is this the one @Imaginethis?

I had measles very badly when I was about 4 or 5 - late 1950's [I'm old!!!].
I can remember being in bed with the curtains across because the daylight hurt my eyes. I have no idea how long I was ill for though. It's only a vague memory now.

Then at Secondary school there was a girl who had a built up shoe to even her legs out because she had contracted polio when she was very young.

I'm 65 . I had measles at about 6-7 but don't remember feeling ill, though I was isolated and kept in a darkened room. I remember the massive red spots.

Thinking of polio, I worked with two colleagues who had polio as children and got hit by the later years (very late 50s) re-visit of the illness.

Cornetto - thank you. Yes, that’s the one.

(Goes off to learn how to do links)

I just wanted to win the ‘young’ crown

My dad told me how his 2 best friends died in a diptheria outbreak. That must have been mid 1930s.

My DB and DS and I all had measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox. I had scarlet fever and my DB had whooping cough.

We were still in the age of measles parties to get it over and done with when small.

I remember some people with issues due to polio but were were immunised against it.

I remember my younger brother throwing up when he had measles, when we were really small. I also remember we had 'measles parties' - one child got one of those (measles, rubella, chicken pox) and so all the kids in the road would be sent to play with the sick child. It was far better to have those illnesses when you were young. Somehow amongst all the spottiness, I missed having chicken pox, so caught it when I was 10.

My elder brother had mumps but my younger brother and I didn't.

My aunt with TB came to stay with us for a few wee ks - on her way to the Sanitorium it turned out though of course she didn't mention that when she asked to stay - and my brothers and I all had to have our BCG vaccine right then. I was about 3 and I still have a dent in my leg where I was injected!

When dd caught chicken pox, I rang all the mums I knew (well, I stopped after two!) asking if they'd like to come and play because dd had the pox - and they were all horrified that they might be expected to deliberately make their child ill! Things change.

I had quite a close friend who had polio. We were very jealous of her crutches, but she kind enough to lend them to people so we all learnt to go really really fast on them!