Single measles jabs not recognised . What to do for the best ?

[walesmum]

This is my first visit and posting to Mumsnet . I was originally just hoping to look and find the help and advice to my question on here already, but it isn't as far as i have read. I am expecting to be shot down in flames sadly as both my children have had single vaccinations , and from what i have read on here so far single vaccinations are a very emotive subject . My Daughter is 19 and i can't begin to describe how terrifying it was to be a parent around the time Andrew Wakefield was in full flow . I decided rather than not vaccinate at all to pay for singles so both my children have had 2 doses of each vaccine. School rang up about my youngest child yesterday saying that they do not recognise single vaccinations and urging me to have him re vaccinated and once again i am struggling with what to do. I feel they are both protected , but reading words on this site such as 'dodgy vaccines ' etc etc i'm more confused than ever. Talk about single jabs being a money spinner for private companies makes me laugh as GP's get paid for every child they jab and we were thrown out of our doctors practice all those years ago because i told my GP i was having single vaccinations , so where lies the difference between the government paying GP's and private practice ? I look forward to an informative debate .

No flaming here - I also went the single jab route the school are wrong, they are effective. I would be flaming a school that tried to out me under that kind of pressure though

Ds had mumps as a baby and is never going to be pregnant so we paid to have the single vaccine.

I'm sure more parents would vaccinate if they could have single vaccines.

I'm sure more parents would vaccinate if they could have single vaccines

I don't doubt it, it wrong we have no choice, that is where the problem really lies

Yep, Rockinhippy , The school nurse was in a league of her own and made me feel quite small. I feel damned if i do and damned if i don't , but don't feel that i should have to give my Son 4 measles vaccinations ( plus the others) which is what it would amount to .

Hi Wales. If you're worried about them being immune you could have their immunity tested but 2 doses of the singles should be just as effective as the MMR. Just because the school isn't recognising it ( why aren't they?!) doesn't mean that they aren't vaccinated. Don't worry about the 'dodgy' comments either - the people making them can't justify them. :)

The single vaccination is 98% effective compared to 95% for the first MMR and 98% once the child has had their MMR booster. They are talking nonsense at your child's school.

Hi Walesmum - if your kids had all singles twice, they should have adequate protection and I actually don't know what the school is on about. If you want to know whether your kids are immune, you can have their titers tested. Are they threatening to exclude your youngest from school (because normally, in the UK, vaccination is not required to attend school in the first place)?
I would suggest you contact Public Health Wales - they are on Facebook and answer questions there.
Good luck!

My daughter had the single jabs too because of a family condition we have which was in all likelihood provoked by a reaction to a med (v obscure and rare so won't go into it here). She then had the full MMR booster at 3.5

By the time my son came along you couldn't get the single jabs for mumps iirc so he got both MMRs.

Anyway, no judging here. You did vaccinate your children and that's what matters. As far as I am concerned, both my children are equally protected and I think your DCs are too. I think this is where a perfectly reasonable public health decision (to follow the MMR route) cuts across some perfectly reasonable private decisions (to have the jabs separately) and it doesn't make sense for the school to argue that just because you didn't go the authorites-approved route your children are not protected when they are.

FWIW I'm very pro vaccination and it sounds like you are too but with our family history (which I do not expect a mass vaccination programme to take into account) it was worth shelling out for single jabs.

They are talkin' rubbish afaik

Honestly

take no notice.

were you able to get him the single vaccine for mumps? If not, it might be worth having mmr just for that as mumps can be really nasty for teenage and older males.

I would be fixing the silly woman with my best Paddington stare & telling her that - in her position you are very surprised indeed that she doesn't know the correct facts as regards effectiveness of single vaccinations & that you are even moe surprised that thinks its okay to try & frighten parents into unnecessary inoculations, which are not only bad for your DCs, but wasting already stretched government funds & if she still carries on - complain above her head

Hiya , Yes he had the mumps vaccine in 2005 and i think he must have been one of the last few to get a single as I believe they're no longer available now either.
There was no mention or any suggestion of exclusion from school , just subtle pressure to take up the offer of the MMR in school in a week or two. I'm going to stand by my decision and thanks ladies for your input .

No problem, good luck :)

Why are the school interested? Do they check vaccination records? I wasn't planning to discuss vaccinations with the school that my child might go to.

I can't pretend that I know too much about the medical side, but I do remember hearing something interesting on the radio (4) around the time of the hoohah with the doctor who was against it.
That was the decision to drop the use of mercury, or some similarly frightening ingredient, in the making of the 3 in 1 MMR. It was the 'material' they used to bind the three things together, hence the singles being OK, but the 3 in 1 deemed not-apparently.
Curiously, I heard nothing more said about that decision and predictably the makers said their decison had nothing to do with the current controversy.

there was never any mercury in any of the M, M, R and MMRs.
The latest Merck statement clearly has a political component. The said in 2011:

Based on input from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), professional societies, scientific leaders, and customers, Merck has decided not to resume production of ATTENUVAX® (Measles Virus Vaccine Live), MUMPSVAX® (Mumps Virus Vaccine Live), and MERUVAX®II (Rubella Virus Vaccine Live). This science-based decision will support vaccination of the largest group of appropriate individuals. Merck will continue to focus necessary resources to ensure that they can help meet current and future global public health needs for their combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, M-M-R®II (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Virus Vaccine Live).

Tabitha8 , I live in North Wales and the measles outbreak is currently in South Wales and the school nurse said that our North Wales school is checking through all the student's vaccination records and having a vaccination day to ensure any child that needs MMR can have it as the outbreak may soon be up North. As my Son went privately his records via our NHS GP do not show him as having any vaccinations other than his baby immunisations . His Red Health Book is fully stamped up with all the single vaccines because i took it to each appointment . All the dates we went, batch numbers of the vaccines and expiry dates are on there and i photocopied the page and sent it in to the school nurse to prove he was vaccinated and school still rang saying that single jabs are not recognised. Ridiculous .

I think it's purely because we are in Wales and they are preparing in case the outbreak spreads .

Hi all, I am also new onto this site, seeing if anyone else had gone down the single jabs route (as I did for both of my children), to now be told (in my case by the GP today) that they are ineffective, and they still need the MMR. I then spoke to the provider of the jabs, the most recent one being the Childrens Immunisation Centre, and they maintain the single on is as effective as the MMR (also claimed on their website). I am totally at a loss about what to do now.

Well the single measles jabis still used in France so they might be a bit surprised to hear that your GP thinks it is ineffective :) Could you have their immunity tested if you are worried?

My own now 10yr old DD had the single measles & mumps jabs many years back, (she didn't need the rubella one as she was already immune due to catching it at 6 months old) - since then, living in a city where the MMR uptake has in the past been low & she has been exposed to both mumps & measles many times & Has never become ill with it herself, that's despite her having quite low immunity to other ailments & catching everything going - the idea that these jabs don't work is ridiculous

Interesting to know you can still get single jabs in France Bumbley I will keep that in mind.

The single jab is normally used in France only for infants who go into group care settings before they reach MMR age, and is given in addition to the scheduled MMR. I think they will give it to children of other age (you'll have to pay) but be prepared for a bit of Gallic sneeriness about choosing something they see as inferior.

I live in France and it is true that generally the single measles is given to babies in care settings.

However I have enquired about it with our GP for my children and he would prescribe it for us if we decided to give it to the children (which is something we are unsure about due to DD1 having bad reactions to previous vaccinations). He didn't see it as in any way inferior to MMR with regards to measles protection.

Hi
I posted on this thread about exactly the same thing a few days ago. I got in touch with both Public Health Wales and Public Health England ( previously HPA) and PHE got back to me with confirmation that latest advice is it has to be 2 mmr jabs. They gave me links to documentation - haven't had time to read thru yet. Hope this helps x
www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1274088429847
www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1238565307587