Diseases we vaccinate against

[Froglet2011]

Hi everyone I'm interested to know if people with older children have come across many outbreaks of measles, whooping cough etc and have any of your non vaccinated children caught these in what would be considered a 'worse' case than peers who are vaccinated? Any comments gratefully received.

is this research for some degree/other study/paper? or weighing up pros/cons of vaccination for your child?

Hi there sorry yes it's personal not for research purposes or anything like that.

ta so is it only parents of unvaccinated children you want to hear from?

I had mine have the single jabs because they were due them at the height of the mmr = autism furore (and way before the link was discredited) and I refused to let them have the mmr.

Which is fairly amusing in a laugh or you'd cry way, cos it turns out they both have autism

I know quite a few people who have not had their children vaccinated.

I don't know of any outbreaks of measles etc. I mean, I do know they are happening! and I am aware that for some people, the consequences have been dreadful. I just mean I don't know anyone personally affected.

Mine (23,21, &18) are vaccinated as per the programme at the time. dd also has annual flu and has had pneumovax.

The main thing to note has been that at my son's university, he's 21, in his 3rd year there have been students who've had mumps each year. I've not personally come across any whooping cough or rubella but dd had a measles like illness post pre-school booster, which the boys also caught but I'm not sure if it's possible it was actual measles ie I don't think it's a live vax is it?

Thanks for your replies both of you. That is interesting about uni ages as I think it was rife when I was at uni and they were making sure everyone was vaccinated. I know so many people have their opinions on the matter and I don't really want to get into that if it can be helped I just wondered i suppose a) if these childhood diseases are SO much harsher in unvaccinated children and b) whether many people see these illnesses commonly in nursery or primary school aged children.

Justhecate... Thanks for sharing your story out of interest did you feel any of your childrens autism was linked to vaccines or was it noticeable before this age?

I hope you don't mind my asking.

I've worked in primary for 7 years and we've not had a reported case of any of the vaccinated illnesses.

no. My eldest was clearly autistic from birth. No eye contact, no interest in faces, no babbling, went rigid when you held him.

I didn't know that's what it was. I thought he didn't love me and I was a bad mother.

He was diagnosed at two and a half. The process did not take long. There was little doubt!

My youngest, who is 15 months younger than my eldest, developed 'normally'. In fact, he is the reason I went to the hv & gp with concerns about my eldest. He was so different. I just lost him one day. One day babbling, grinning, hugging, looking me in the eye. Next day - gone. That person didn't exist any more. He was diagnosed after he was 3

He regressed at about the time he WOULD have had his mmr - had he had it, I would have linked the two, no doubt about it. I would have been screaming from the rooftops that the mmr had done it! But clearly - since he never had it - it wasn't that in his case. In my case, I think it's genetic. There are clear autistic traits in several members of my family, myself included.

(neither of them had the singles until later anyway. my eldest was over 4 I believe)

Thank you that's kind of you, you've clearly been through a lot and sound like a wonderful mum, thanks for sharing that with me.

Thanks also for the info about the primary school to the last poster- is that a rural location out of interest?

No inner city.

That's interesting thank you

saggar, yes, it's a live vaccine.

Mumps in university has been quite a big problem because the mumps component of the vaccine seems to offer limited protection.

Froglet, I don't necessarily think the diseases are much harsher in unvaccinated children - we all have immune systems and some people will get things mildly while others get things more seriously. The unvaccinated person may be more likely to catch the disease but that doesn't mean that they will have a bad case of it iykwim.

As discussed on another thread, reporting isn't really the best for these diseases anyway. Vaccinated children can be diagnosed with a 'virus' or 'X-like virus' whereas unvaccinated children will just be diagnosed with X. Another MNer's child had mumps recently (confirmed because she pushed for the test) while others in the class were diagnosed with a 'mumps-like virus'. As for incidence, both my boys had rubella before they were 1. They may or may not have had mumps yet (over a 1/3 of cases are asymptomatic).

Thanks bumbleymummy how did your boys cope with rubella at that age- i'm assuming they wouldn't have been vaccinated at that point? (if they are)

Absolutely fine. Rubella is really mild - its can just be dangerous if non-immune pregnant women catch it in the early stages of pregnancy. We didn't even know DS2 had anything until the rash came out and we took him to the doctor to get it checked. The doctor didn't really seem too bothered about it and I doubt he even reported it.

A friend of mine's little girl, aged about 8, had measles recently. I asked how it was, she said "very like chicken pox, only with a higher temperature and vomiting."

I think it is plain irresponsible to risk measles these days...

Why 'these days' Catherina? Do you think it is any different to how it was in the 60s/70s/early 80s when pretty much everyone had it and no one worried too much about it?

I have seen cases of measles,mumps and whopping cough. Never diptheria or polio. I think Rubella is so mild few would seek medical attention. All in unvaccinated children except mumps.

Measles can be realy horrid and whopping cough v. dangerous in babies, but then I would say that

Naughty I would beg to differ on Rubella, when I had it (at 7) I was extremely ill, the doctor was notified and if I had been MC (or nowadays) I would like to think I would have been hospitalised.

I have seen whooping cough in vaccinated kids, and I think it was milder than unvaccinated, the big issue is that doctors don't spot it. One friend had been told her daughter couldn't have it, until a Doctor friend who had seen it in Africa diagnosed it. Also the "lingering cough" that hung around pre-school about 4/5 years ago turned out to be whooping cough.

The whooping cough vaccine only provides protection for a few years. This means that most children and adults are not protected against it. In children and adults it usually presents as a persistent cough and many people don't consider that it might be whooping cough because they think that they are still protected by the vaccine. This means that they are potentially putting small babies at risk.

Mummy, is it possible that you had measles rather than rubella? It has similar symptoms but is usually more severe. Rubella is usually very mild and many people don't even know they have it.

'Why 'these days' Catherina? Do you think it is any different to how it was in the 60s/70s/early 80s when pretty much everyone had it and no one worried too much about it?'

According to my mum, parents worried terribly about measles in the 60s, the same as they did for polio before a vaccine was developed. Parent's were pushing GPs to get the measles vaccine as soon as it was available.

The only measles I have come across is a 6 month old baby who sadly died in Great Ormond St when my friend's daughter was in - this would have been about 12 years ago.

ithaka, are ou sure about that because according to the HPA there ahve only been 2 deaths from acute measles since 1992 and they were both in older, immunosuppressed children. Here

I know that my mum didn't worry too much about measles for us in the early 80s. Nor had her mother for their huge family in the 50s/60s. Measles parties were still going on in rural ireland in the early 80s. There wasn't really a huge uptake of the vaccine either. It was introduced in 1968 and 10 years later there was only about 50% uptake.

My last sentence is based on figures for the UK from the HPA.

Nope it was definitely Rubella, I was just unlucky. I did then get Scarlet fever just as I was getting better. My mum did also suspect I had an allergy to some medicine my useless childhood GP gave me.
It was confirmed by blood test though, as well as my measles vaccination being up to date.