Immune amnesia after measles - are GPs likely to know?

[PickleFish]

There seems to have been a lot of research in the past 5ish years about how measles infection can 'wipe' the immune system of a lot of antibodies to other diseases, and that it takes several years to build up resistance again to the common bugs. But there is little information out there about the return of antibodies to pathogens that are usually vaccinated against in the childhood vaccines and that people might not come into contact with that frequently. A couple of sites say that actually, re-vaccination wouldn't be a bad idea.

There has been more about this 'immune amnesia' in the media lately with the measles outbreak, and I wonder if that means it's something the GPs are likely to be more familiar with now - often it seems to be used as a way to convince people that the vaccine is worth having, as the consequences of measles can be more than just the illness at the time. But what about people who have had measles -in this case, quite a long time after all the other childhood illnesses and childhood vaccines (because the measles vaccine didn't work)? Is there any scope for testing immunity to things like mumps, chicken pox etc that occured before the measles, or things like rubella, or all the illnesses covered in the baby/teenage vaccines that were also before measles? Would it be worth talking to a GP to ask for antibody testing for any particular illnesses, or will they just assume that immunity will be unaffected, or that it will have built back up again, and think it's a waste of time/money to test anything?

Vaccination schedules and guidelines are pretty stringent, and there is usually no requirement to test (without good reason) once you've been vaccinated. So I think you'd struggle to find an NHS GP who'd be willing to request these tests for you. You could certainly talk about this with a private GP and arrange private tests.

Thanks, so having had measles post-childhood would be unlikely to count as a good reason, if the average GP or whoever makes policy doesn't have an in depth knowledge of some of the more recent research (which to be fair, is quite specialised!). But I thought there might be a policy somewhere that did take it into consideration.

I think it needs an absolutely stand out reason for such tests. DH has had such organised by the lead consultant at the regional isolation unit after he nearly died following his second bout of measles. Tests showed he was not developing immunity. MMR vaccines have not provided him with immunity either. For my sanities sake he is now banned for being round anyone who has a fever in known areas of risk.