New twist in MMR debate - vaccinate teenagers?

[mears]

After consciously deciding not to give youngest DD second MMR vaccination, DS1 who is 17 years old has had a letter through from the surgery recommending he has MMR soon because of increased number of cases of mumps.

Now, he has had 3 measles vaccinations already - single measles vaccine at 14 months, MMR when it was introduced and measles vaccine about 4 years ago when there was supposedly going to be a measles epidemic (never materialised).

There are of course no single vaccines on NHS, so I would prefer his immunity checked prior to deciding whether to go ahead or not. Has anyone ever asked for immunity to be checked first before vaccination or repeat MMR?

Any thoughts?

[mears]

DD is now 11 years old so I thought decision making re MMR was long gone.

[cranberryjampot]

I too thought that MMR was in the distant past too - dd is nearly 12 and ds is 8.

[TheHollyAndTheTwiglett]

If a boy had not had mumps pre-puberty I would personally immunise him against it

You can get mumps vaccines at private clinics

[TheHollyAndTheTwiglett]

arrrgghhhhh ... just realised it was you mears .. sorry .. you know more than me and I didn't read your post properly

NHS won't immunity check first AFAIK though ..

[SnowmAngeliz]

I did it but had to go private.
DD had had single measles and rubella and was immune to rubella but not measles, (and not to any of the full set of baby jabs she'd received!!).

TBH, this doesn't suprize me as they don't seem to know how long immunity lasts and there are gonna be alot of adults around soon who have no protection or natural antibodies to alot of these diseases.
mears, hope you get some more advice, (where's jimjams when you need her).

p.s, can i start another thread asking you for some quick advice???

[mears]

Am I worrying about nothing though, him getting MMR again when he is virtually an adult. Women who are susceptible to rubella are given MMR now. I just feel if he is immune he doesn't need it. I am supposed to get flu vaccine because I am an NHS worker (so I won't go off sick) but I have never had flu in my life and don't want to play around unnecessarily with my immune system. I feel the same about this really. But is that daft?

[mears]

That would be fine snowmAngeliz - sorry read your post after posting - I wasn't ignoring you

[SnowmAngeliz]

I don't think it's daft.
I loathe introducing unneccessary things to dds' body 'just incase' she needs it. She's 3 but i'll feel exactly the same when she's 18!

[TheHollyAndTheTwiglett]

can you not pull some strings and get his blood tested???

there have to be some perks for working in the NHS surely??

[SnowmAngeliz]

Oh, o.k

[mears]

Don't think I could pull those strings Haven't spoken to GP yet though - he may well do it if asked (by anyone) anyway.

[WideWebWitch]

You're not being daft mears, if he has immunity then he doesn't need it, I'd ask your GP.

[Jimjambells]

Aha it's started- been saying they would have to teenager/adult boosters for ages Even someone from the dept of health admitted that to a friend of mine on a radio phone in. Worth getting immunity checked (possibly regularly??) if you're not keen on vaccinating again. Mumps isn't usually too bad (sterility very very very rare), but measles in a teenager/adult is not nice......

[mears]

What would you do Jimjambells?

[Jimjambells]

No idea! Probably test immunity and then take it from there. Not even sure what I'll do if ds2 doesn't catch measles before teen years- probably nothing, but I wouldn't say my point of view is very conventional - or that our family history and vaccination experiences are very typical......