India Knight on MMR

[foundintranslation]

in the Sunday Times

ds (13mo) is having single measles next week. It took us a while to make the decision against MMR for our particular case and I really resent being told I am selfish and imbecilic.

Rant over.

Heh ... I objected to:

"...one of those piddly little childhood diseases like chickenpox."

I think recent mumsnet threads have shown quite well that chickenpox can be very nasty for the adult, newborn , and extremely dangerous for pregnant women and the unborn child too...

Not really a piddly childhood disease, is it?

Everybody just keeps missing the damn point here!

WHEN is the NHS going to offer MMR boosters to teens/pre-teens?

People, this is NOT lifelong immunity when you have this jab as an infant and child. There was a major mumps outbreak in the department where I work this Spring. THIRTEEN undergrad students contracted mumps in a small department. Every one of them had been vaccinated against the disease as infants and young children. NONE had been offered a top up booster as a teen/young adult.

These diseases are seriously dangerous to adults, too.

What's the point of even giving these jabs when you don't offer boosters as the child enters the teen years?

Ditto Men C. Give it to 'em as infants, but no booster when they're in the target age range for the disease.

Short-sighted and beyond dumb.

There was a similarly hysterical article earlier in the week by Cristina Odone. Seems to be some kind of Murdoch conspiracy against 'imbecilic, middle-class, yoga-loving, organic-eating' parents. I can't think of anything more incisive to say really. IMO articles like this miss the point on many levels but that seems to be the norm with many piss-poor, populist, scratching-around-for-an-angle broadsheet columns these days.

Totally agree with the article.

expatinscotland, my GP told me there are plans to intruduce the MMR arund the age of 12. Not sure if would be instead of or as well as the pre-school booster.

Have a friend whose 15-month-old died from chicken pox. Not that piddly...

Plans . . . but it's still not here.

Meanwhile, more and more adults and teens fall ill w/these diseases.

In one of the students who got mumps last year - yes, we had an outbreak last year as well - the disease attacked her ovaries. She now has NO idea if there will be any long term effects on her fertility.

Another almost wasn't able to graduate b/c he was too ill to sit his fourth-year exams. Two of the academics who were old enough to have had the disease as children later offered to invigilate for him when he felt a little better.

Still another suffered tonsilitis as a secondary complication and wound up spending a week in hospital.

Yet there is still NO booster offered . . .

WTF?!

Thought the outbreaks amongst students were because they hadn't had mmr - introduced in 1988 in UK (quickly Googled, could be wrong on that).

There was a measles jab before 1988, Tinker - don't think there was mumps though.

I know, because I wasn't allowed to have the measles jab as I was allergic to eggs (mum was advised not to let me have it as at the time the culture was grown on hens eggs) and later went on to get measles when I was 12/13 or so.

(Oh, I was born in '74 if that helps!)

Oh and today's students going to uni would have been born in 1988 so should have had the MMR?

You need a booster, regardless of what you had as a child/infant - single jabs OR MMR.

The US found this out in 1988. The US has been using MMR for over 35 years - I had it myself as a child and I was born in 1971.

But in 1988, a huge measles outbreak occurred at the University of Texas at Austin. Yet the students had had to show proof of vaccination at the time of matriculation.

They twigged that a booster was needed.

I had to have one on 1989 before matriculating myself.

Guess most children used to get these diseases in childhood and gained immunity so getting them in late teens/adulthood was rare.

Is it the case that boosters would be needed throughout life like tetanus, etc is now?

Cam
It doesn't seem clear at the moment just how many boosters you need. But you DEFFO need one as a teen/young adult.

I suppose it was rare in times past for an adult/teen to contract these diseases, but that's just anedoctal. Every person I know over 50 or so can remember having had all three diseases.

My mum didn't get rubella till she was 17, however, and she recalls it making her very, very ill.

My dad caught the lot: diphtheria, pertussis, mumps, etc. by the time he was 11. He is 70 next week.

I had all 3 expat; my dd1 (born in early 70's) had measles and mumps (rubella jab was given at 13)

Yes, I had a measles jab (after having measles) - born 1964! But didn't have a mumps jab (I don't think) but did get mumps. I had everything as a child, rubella and scarlet fever.

The earlier mumps outbreaks were a few years ago, no? So pre 1988.

Ah, okay

Had they definitely had mumps jabs, expat? I would have thought it was unlikely to be honest, given the introduction date for MMR. They would all have had measles, certainly. Unless MMR was give to older kids when it was first introduced? Completely agree that boosters would be a help though.

At least two had, tamum, the two who raised a big fuss w/their doctors about their vaccination records, one of whom was the student who got tonsilitis and the one who had to use the academics as invigilators.

Oddly enough, my mother has had pertussis twice - once as a child and once when she had a cough that wouldn't go away in her early 60s.

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Leah what were the circumstances of your friend's child dying of chickenpox, if you don't mind me asking? I've never heard of a child dying of it until now. Did the child have any other special health circumstances?

hmm. i've been practicing yoga for 15 years - before it got 'trendy'. i also buy organic, locally produced food.

gave my daughter the MMR, however.

MMR was given to at least some older kids when first introduced ds had it in May 1989 bd April 1988,dd1 had it also in May 1989 bd March 1985 but dd1 didn't bd Nov 1983

Why did it take them so long to introduce it here?

I first had it back in 1972 when I was a little over a year old.

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