Son has measles

[melodiousmoan]

Why do people not vaccinate their kids? My child has been vaccinated but only had his first lot as is 20 months. He has contracted measles. I chose to vaccinate him against this. Ill advised people that think if they dont vaccinate there's only a slim chance your child will get this disease you're wrong. You're increasing everyone's chance of contracting the illness by ruining the herd immunity that this country had created. Not only are you doing this, you're increasing people with compromised immune systems' chance of death. I feel terrible that my child has to go through this because of others lack of understanding.

Sorry - CorusKate: I agree - there are always some who don't seem to get it even in epidemic years. The Queen didn't get it until some time after she had had aprince Charles.

" if more people were vaccinated, the chance of my son getting measles would be diminished."

This may come as a surprise to you, but the whole world might not want to vaccinate their children just so the chances of yours catching a disease will be diminished.

They might want to vaccinate if and only if it is in the best interests of their children.

Funny but true.

or the UN vaccinated children in the future that will become elderly and need protecting?

Or indeed the VACCINATED children for whom the immunity has worn off, once they become elderly? Will we be offering boosters to 50 year olds?

Edith, unvaccinated pregnant mothers need protecting. Therefore 4 is a valid category as unborn children are at risk. Having gone through a stillbirth myself (for different reasons) I feel very strongly about protecting pregnant mothers and they deserve their own category because of the catastrophic effect not vaccinating for a valid reason can have.

You understand category 1.

Côté: I did my research before getting my son vaccinated. I knew that I was helping to keep the herd protected. It is in the best interests of everyone to get immunised. I want to protect other people's children, why wouldn't they want to protect mine? You are displaying a very selfish viewpoint.

Can't remember where I read it, and it was only yesterday, but the only way to truly be immune from measles for the rest of your life is to catch measles. Vaccinations do wear off over time so your son could of caught it from someone who had been vaccinated some time ago and the vaccine has worn off.

I know measles is a very risky illness with some nasty side effects but so can the jabs. My friends aunt had 2 children die within hours of having the jabs which has led to genetic testing on the family and the whole family now don't have any jabs. The risk of them dying isn't concrete but it is enough that they won't risk their children's health.

This 'halfway through jabs' is a bit of a fallacy as well. The first jab is enough to cover some 90% of the population so the booster isn't always needed. I would suggest that the 1st jab didn't take on your son so he would need a booster to be in your words 'half covered'

As for people not vaccinating due to a misguided autism risk it isn't the fact the risk was suggested. A lot of it is the defiance of the govt to offer any hope of a solution. I would vax my girls if I had the chance of a different option. I don't trust the MMR, DS is autism and while I don't truly believe I can blame the MMR I have since come into contact with dozens of mums who can directly blame the MMR which has made me sceptical and unwilling to see my girls develop autism

CorusKate: I don't really think we are fully in a position to state this. The measles vaccine was introduced in the UK in 1968, so it's only now that the first generation to have been offered it are coming up to 50. Since no one bothers to check your immunity from measles, I doubt whether they know whether the current generation of 40+ year olds are immune or not.

I believe though that with the mumps vaccine, the immunity has worn off much sooner than they anticipated with the result that it is now more likely to be a problem for young men in their late teens. I am not sure whether there is talk of a booster or not for this age group.

Debs75, when I lost my daughter, I immediately blamed the drugs they gave me to lower my BP. It is a natural human reaction. Since then, I've realised it had nothing at all to do with her death. As mums, we worry about putting something unnatural into our children, the doctor that started the Autism/MMR correlation debate has since been struck off the medical register. Is there other research that suggests they are related? For me, the pros outweigh the cons. I see where you are coming from but measles can cause death too.

"I want to protect other people's children, why wouldn't they want to protect mine? "

You are sweet. And naive.

I'd be happy to protect your children but not at the cost of making mine take a risk and doing something that is not in their best interests. If you are honest with yourself, you would know that this is how you feel, too. You want to protect other people's children because you think vaccination has no real risk.

"You understand category 1"

Wow. Just wow.

But it seems you don't get understand why Category 4 is nugatory.

"Current best advice is that the vaccines recommended by the NHS are preferable to the diseases."

Preferable for whom?

Rubella is an extremely mild illness. Many parents don't even notice that their children have had it. It is in a girl's best interest to have it as a child and be immune for life, not to be vaccinated as a baby and risk waning immunity in her childbearing years.

"I'd rather get an MMR shot once a decade than have measles."

I'd rather get a single measles shot.

Not that I need to, because I have had measles. Twice.

So sorry if I'm a bit hard to scare re measles.

Sorry Edith, I dont understand. Or you can do it without being vile, do explain.

It's all very well saying that Wakefield was struck off. He was, but many of us feel that there was something of a witch hunt against him. He did not say, don't have your child vaccinated against measles - he recommended the single jab, which was freely available at the time.

Unfortunately successive governments seem to have had an agenda to push the MMR vaccine. I believe, (and no doubt someone will jump in to correct me if I am wrong), that mumps wasn't even a notifiable disease before the MMR vaccine came along.

Corus - No. As I explained below, being vaccinated against Rubella is not in the individual girls' best interests, and it is not preferable to them having the disease.

OP you are not being unreasonable. It makes me livid when I hear about parents who won't vaccinate for some spurious airy fairy reason and the ones who are concerned about autism I just want smack in the face.

Absent a sound medical reason not to vaccinate a failure to vaccinate makes you a bad parent and a selfish individual. My personal view is that an unvaccinated child shouldn't be permitted into school unless there are valid medical grounds. These grounds will be few and far between which is why herd immunity is so important.

And when I hear anyone defending that twat Wakefield I just want to scream.

Can you not read? I have already said (7 minutes ago, in an answer to your post) why it is better to have rubella than the vaccine:

CoteDAzur Tue 25-Feb-14 22:19:37
Rubella is an extremely mild illness. Many parents don't even notice that their children have had it. It is in a girl's best interest to have it as a child and be immune for life, not to be vaccinated as a baby and risk waning immunity in her childbearing years.

Cote/Corus: that of course, is one of the government's problems with the vaccination programme - they appear muddled in what they are trying to do.

I suspect that by vaccinating boys against rubella, when a boy by definition can't bear a child, that what they would really like is to eliminate the disease.

But if that's the case, say so, and offer a single rubella vaccination at a sensible time i.e. just before puberty. Don't babble on about measles and mumps, because we happen to have lumped it into the same vaccine.

Make the single measles vaccine available on the NHS again, if you are really concerned about measles.

In the 1950s measles was regarded as just one of those childhood diseases. Now, it may have changed since then and have developed a more virulent form.