To ask you to share your experiences with measles, mumps and rubella in more recent years?

[sneezingwakesthebaby]

Okay, so I know this should probably be somewhere else but I hoped more people would see and respond here.

I've read the vaccination thread on here and a lot of people shared experiences where someone they knew was deaf or blind or permanently disabled from catching one of these diseases. A lot of them seemed to be from a while back and it got me wondering how our bodies, hygiene and medical care copes with these diseases today and if these horrible side effects are still common.

So, would anyone mind sharing any experiences they have had of measles, mumps or rubella within the past ten years or so?

I can't, but many of those experiences will be a while back simply because routine vaccination is so common now. The fact that the anecdotes are generally older doesn't mean that the consequences of these illnesses have improved markedly.

I understand that but that's what got me wondering if those bad effects are still common within the people who do catch those diseases or if medical care nowadays can reduce the likelihood of bad side effects. I should have worded it better.

Unlikely to be many modern examples in this country because vaccination has made the illness you mention rare.

If the anti science brigade get their way that may not be the case in a generation or so......

I have seen mumps meningitis a few times and also children needing several days hospital admission for iv fluids with measles

Ive looked after children who have been gravely ill from measles. The one had suffered a stroke and permanent brain damage due to measles involvment in the brain. Was very very sad indeed.

FuttheShuck (great name BTW) are you a medical professional? Has the treatment for those illnesses changed much over the last 10-20 years? My perception was not, but I'm not a medical type.

My eldest son contracted measles when I was pregnant with ds2. Ds1 is now 5 and ds2 just 4 so not too long ago. I remember googling the rash and thinking it can't be measles as he had already had the mmr. Took him to the chemist as it was a Sunday and he agreed so took him to put of hours. They sent us straight to the hospital where we were kept in isolation for about 5 hours and then they let us go home. Ds' symptoms were the rash and a ridiculously high temperature but once the hospital managed to control that he was ok. I always felt lucky that he didn't suffer too much and wondered if having the mmr has made his symptoms milder? He was far more ill when he had hand foot and mouth than the measles. I questioned the doctor as to why he had managed to contract it. This was in the days when they only had one vaccination (I think they now do 2) and they told me it was only 90% effective. No idea why as a patent you weren't told that as I has presumed once vaccinated they were protected.
Hope that helps. Out of interest why are you asking?

I have got into discussions with friends who are against vaccinating recently. I've found that they have done lots of "research" into the negative effects of vaccines (believing all sorts of stuff they read online, and hear from friends without checking the validity of the sources properly).

However what was striking to me was how little they knew about the possible effects of the diseases. They'd not looked them up, they'd just gone on anecdotal evidence and concluded that they weren't a danger these days because of modern medicine and relative good health. I don't know how typical this is but it's a very dangerous approach IMO!

One friend told be she'd rather get tetanus than have excema! Her excema flares up after a tetanus jab. However she refused to believe that tetanus was still a danger to her in this day and age, despite a nurse friend of mine describing the awful condition a man in his 20s was in, when he came into hospital with tetanus and the permanent damage he suffered. (I forget the detail now, will ask). She just didn't want to know!

Please forgive me if i am wrong, but I suspect you may be trying to find out if such diseases still pose a threat these days, and you're hoping they don't. If you genuinely want to know the answer, i suggest you do some research to find proper peer-reviewed papers (hopefully peoplke here may have some suggestions, i'm on my phone so hard to find them) rather than collecting anecdotal evidence.

But, yes, you will find that yes, measles for example is still a killer.

Im a paeds nurse. Dont think the treatment has changed that much due to the fact the illness has rarely been seen in the past twenty years but in the past five years certainly there has been an increase and especially an increase in the complications of measles

Oh, ok my apologies! I'd only read your first post when I wrote mine and it set off alarm bells!

If you're a paed nurse you'll be well aware of the importance of evidence based research! :)

Interesting to hear your views on the subject.

My children did not have the MMR as I had developed an auto immune disease which was probably triggered by the rubella vaccine and I did not want to take the chance. The GP and Health Visitor I had at the time supported this decision. I wanted them to have a single measles vaccine but could not afford it.

They have had measles when aged 5 and 8. They had a rash and a temperature. They were seen at the walk in clinic at the local hospital as they got ill on a Saturday. Lots of staff came to have a look as they had never seen a case. The doctors we saw were unconcerned about them. They took mouth swabs and it was clinically confirmed.

It was uncomfortable for a few days because of the rash and temperature. I got up every two hours in the night to check on them because I was paranoid that they would get seriously ill and die but they were fine.

We got a literally hysterical reaction from the Head of their school who was refused to believe they had measles as they were not in hospital. I also had someone from the local health authority ring me up wanting to know where they had caught it etc and telling me to make them have the MMR.

In our case it was not at all a serious ill but of course for some people it is. Both me and my sibling had measles (we were 18 months/3 years). DH had it as did his three siblings. All our parents had it as children and most children of our acquaintance growing up in the seventies. I never heard of anyone dying of being hospitalised.

Both DH and I became ill a couple of weeks later with a fever and general malaise - not sure if it was some sort of immune reaction brought on by being in contact or something else.

I don't think the relative mildness of my DC's measles had anything to do with better hygiene or medical care - effectively there was no medical care other than DH and I nursing them. I assume that the virus affects people in different ways.

I think if you have greater experience of vaccine damage it will sway your view of immunisations whereas if you have more experience of complications of measles it tends to make you more pro immunisations iykwim.
Like everything its a case of looking at BOTH sides of the argument and making an INFORMED decision based on best evidence based knowledge

I had measles. I remember a high temp, feeling rotten for about three days, and dry retching. Then feeling fine but being in quarantine. My mum then had to go back to work so I was sent to my friends house to play with my friend who was off school with whooping cough and spent her time chucking up in tissues. I think I remember the whooping cough better because when her kids had it I spotted it right away - it was like being transported back to 1978. I don't think quarantine was taken that seriously in the 70's though as I also remember my friend's mum taking us into the local town and her saying to me in a loud voice 'get your hands off the counter you've got measles' and rolling her eyes at the ship assistant who rolled them back. I imagine that would clear the shop & lead to a lecture these days

My mum is deaf in one ear from measles. She was ill for a very long time and spent a lot of time in hospital.

Vitamin A status affects measles severity.

I also have a child who regressed into severe autism. He is vaccinated against measles, his younger siblings aren't. I believe that's the right decision with the knowledge we have (I have a science PhD, we have spoken to ds1's paediatrician and neurologist, I have attended many autism conferences & spoken to researchers before people start clutching their pearls and going on about woo).

My ds was also looked at by loads of doctors as as said above they hadn't seen many cases. Like I said I HAD vaccinated and he still got it. I had had my rubella jab but was still terrified being pregnant that it would affect my unborn child.
aufanie the op is isn't futtheshutup.

Yes fut agreed.

Interestingly my mum who has lived for 55 + years with measles damage said 'don't you get those children vaccinated' when were discussing da2 and ds3 a few years ago. This was obviously after being there to observe ds1's regression. So I presume she sees her damage as minor compared to his.

She's not the sort of mum who expects me to do what she says btw, she was just expressing an opinion years after we'd declined the offer if vaccination. I found it interesting as she often talks about how ill she was with measles, and still lives with the effects

Sorry just to add my other two dc's have also been vaccinated and I am totally pro vaccination. The liklihood is my son caught it from an unvacccinated child. What if it had been my new born? Working in special schools and seeing first hand the effects that measles can have on children I can't understand why people don't protect their children. A huge debate I know but that is my opinion.

Fut - what age groups are getting measles? Do you think it's becoming more severe because the group catching measles are more vulnerable in some way (either through age or something else- measles being more severe in the babies and adults than kids).

Well my son attends an SLD school where children are there because of both disease (usually meningitis though) & vaccination. Which might part explain why some choose to run the risk of the disease.

I had all three diseases when I was younger and was fine.
Measles side effects are reduced if vitamin A is given and also if mum is/has breastfed.... well that's what my doctor told me.

Measles itself isn't dangerous, what's dangerous is that it stops the immune system working properly which makes the sufferer vulnerable to complications like pneumonia. The healthier the immune system is to begin with the more likely the disease will just be quite mild.

Baby that's pretty much word for word how my family health book written by a consultant paed in the early 80's describes measles. This thread has reminded me I need to stock up on cod liver oil.

He does say 'if you get any of the complications they can easily be treated with antibiotics' which might not be quite so true these days (and you'll probably need a much higher dose than you would have in the early 80's)

and carrots x

Gumps - how many children at your school are there as a results of measles, mumps or rubella?

Do you think I should risk my DC getting a crippling disease to protect your DC who had already had the vaccine which didn't work?

I think newborns are protected by their Mum's immunity.

I got mumps at the age of 25. I was pregnant. I miscarried. The baby died while the symptoms were present. I have no idea whether they were related but my instinct says yes. I wasn't vaccinated as a child. My DS has been.

For me I resent the choice being taken away from children who can't have the vaccine (either because they're too young or too poorly) when people opt to not vaccinate. Measles can be extremely mild but it also can be extremely serious. Why take the risk? Or is it ok if it's not your child who is affected?

Fwiw my newborn contracted rubella, not serious to them but potentially serious to any pregnant women they came into contact with.

I think OP wanted to hear about people who had had experienced these diseases recently. Now it has deteriorated into the familiar slanging match about whose kids are more important.

We all care most about our own kids. I did not vaccinate with the MMR because I could not take the risk with the "R" component. They have had the other vaccines. At the end of the day I can do what I want so the rest of the world can fuck off.