MMR single vaccines just a bit of info please.

[leander]

I feel a bit nervous posting this as i dont want to start anymore arguments,but we got our app through for ds's mmr.We would prefer to give him the single vaccines but people keep saying they are not licensed and some say they are.I will go and talk to my hv about it but I thought the combined wisdom of mumsnet may be able to tell me more.

suedonim - I think about 60 to 70% of teh population are O so he should be OK!

I'm a B - and you're right about the tomatoes! Unfortunately that doesn't seem to give me much excuse for the solid build and pear-shaped bit

Chelle- I was jack of all trades master of none. Never do a broad PhD they're a nightmare! Mainly it was cytogenetics, but used molecular techniques to look at evolution and population genetics (yawn). I think you have to use molecular these days to get funding- although I have to say the cytogenetics was more interesting. Useful today as well as DS1 had a chromosomal test :-(

Aloha - that would make sense (the perfect pitch thing). Autistics (and dyspraxics) often retain rfelxes etc that are meant to be lost in infancy.

Georgina- good luck for coming through quarantine (or maybe it would be better to have it so then you know you're immune!)

lol JimJams - mixed feelings at the moment! I'm asthmatic so completely paranoid that I would be one of the minority to get serious complications, plus I've only a few days to go and I'm desperate to go see my pregnant friends (one is due for a c-section tomorrow, and I so want to be able to visit the baby when she's ready to receive visitors!). But it would save an awful lot of hassle, and I would know I was immune. Oh well, lets just see what hand I get dealt and work from there

Thanks Jimjams! I was only interested as I used a lot of molecular techniques in my PhD (although have been working more in the field of parasite epidemiology for the past 6 years) and DH was a quantitative geneticist in a past life - now a cow farmer and computer programmer!

To answer Zebra's question a few days back re. vaccination proof for schools & daycares in the USA... we moved to the US and to get a green card you need to prove you are immune to a whole set of mostly childhood illnesses (can be proved by Dr's letter to say you have had the disease (month/year) or have been vaccinated (again records with month/year. If you have had the disease you need a blood test to confirm immunity. If this cannot be proven, you are required to have the immunizations again. I had never been vaccinated but had measles, mumps and rubella as a child and this was accepted.
My daughter was born in the US and each child has a vaccination book and in there the Dr sign's off when a particular vaccine is given. This is presented to a school or daycare when requested and normally a health form (confirming dates) is required to be filed each year from the childs Dr's office. They also give the chickenpox vaccine to kids here when they are 18 mo +. The single vaccines incidently are not licensed in the USA so its MMR or go abroad to have single vaccines. After much discussion and soul searching... we had my DD vaccinated with MMR at 18 months. No side effects thankfully.
Also re. skiing and daycares at the ski resorts... I have never been asked for vaccination records and never thought to bring them with us...

Further to Bubblemum's message- I was talking to someone the other day about the situation in France. Like the USA they require vaccination for school attendence, but apparently they will accept homeopathic vaccination!!! She felt it had more to do with the French need for beaurocracy than anything else.

So we can move to Provence after all.....

Sorry to resurrect this one again, folks, but did anyone else not think it odd that the government can interpret the phrase that "there's no evidence of any link between the MMR vaccine and autism" means that there categorically is no link, yet the phrase that "there is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq" means "there almost certainly are some, but we just haven't found them yet".
Didn't mean to raise the phoenix from the ashes, but this did strike me as a bit odd.

ha ha ha love it!!!

Aside from the fact that no member of the government has ever made such a statement on Saddam and weapons of mass destruction maybe it is because unlike MMR and autism there is a lot of obvious evidence around to support their suspicions.

oh gracie follow the links below......

Frieda, I think that sums both subjects up nicely.

Didn't mean to start a debate on this, I was merely quoting from the summary of Blix's report reported on the news the other night. And no one seems particularly keen to share exactly what this ?evidence? consists of.
Back to MMR, everyone.

I did follow the links Jimjams but could see no real evidence in any of them of a direct link between autism and MMR. Blix's report says Iraq has still not accounted for 6,500 chemical rockets, 650kg of material used to make concentrated anthrax and various stockpiles of VX nerve agent while all the evidence points to them moving towards a nuclear weapons capability. AS the report says "Iraq appears not to have come to a genune acceptance of the disarmament that was required of it". Why would it be in govement's around the world interests to deliberately promote a triple vaccine that is unsafe? It can't be cost factors because if the case against MMR can be conclusively proved as so many seem to think, then given the 500 million or so vaccinated, the compensation costs are going to be crippling.

Told myself not to get involved, but can't hold myself back...

Gracie, governments support it because they look at society as a whole and in that context vaccination is a good thing (there will be some people who disagree with this but I'm not going into that right now). Any links are only in a very small proportion of those vaccinated.

As a government this will concern you little, as a parent it might concern you a lot.

But when I had mine vaccinated I was given a leaflet which talked about the risks. Can't remember exactly but death was something like 1 in 4 million.

Well that sort of proves my point - over a few years vaccination in the UK one child will definitely die, but for the government it is better to promote vaccination than worry about that child.

As a parent you weigh up the risks a bit differently. Most of us would be prepared to take a 1 in 4 million risk (although I might feel differently if I actually was that 1 in 4 million). We might also be prepared to take a 1.2 in a 1000 risk of autism (10% of all autistic children), but it would be nice as a parent to feel there was enough research to have a definite percentage to go on (which I don't feel at the minute).

(I think in those cases death happens within seconds of getting the vaccination so the link is pretty much proven without research).

This is very old ground but surely the point is that the risk of death / disability is statistically greater from the disease than the vaccination. I'm a firm believer in social responsibility and am willing to take a tiny risk with my child's health in order to protect say a child with leukemia who is unable to be vaccinated but for whom a bout of measles could be fatal even if I don't know that child.

Oh, god, here we go again. I promised myself I wouldn't get involved in this one, but given a familiy history of one child irrevocably damaged following a vaccination and another with late-onset autism (perhaps following the MMR, perhaps not) I think even you might feel differently about statistics.

Absolutely Frieda, I agree totally because in that situation the risks are obviously different. Does anyone really deny that like all vaccinations, in a tiny minority of cases MMR can lead to severe problems but taking all the risks into account, on balance the risks of not vaccinating are greater even from an individual's perspective (Although of course this isn't strictly true at the moment becasue the high percentage of the population that is vaccinated means that a measles epidemic is unlikely but this could change quickly).

oh god gracie- swap places with me then- YOU can have the autistic child- and then carry on about social responsibility- where's the social responsisbility to my child? I've been told today that his one-to-one funding at nursery (currently 15 hours) is about to be halved as there's another little boy wtih communication difficulties at his nursery and there isn't enough money to fund both. His nursery don't want to take him without one to one. So I have (yet another) battle on my hands. Forgive me if I don't want to expose my noramlly developing ds2 to a possible increased risk of autism.

Anyway in any measles outbreak- US fugures show about 60% of the children have been vaccinated- it doesn't even work.

Philippat- thought you summed it up nicely. Although for me 1.2 per 1000 risk of autism is simply too high. It's a lifelong disability- and it is hard hard work.

Really didn;t want to get involevd with this - but the words "socail responsibility" from someone who has absolutely no idea what daily life is like with autism is like a red rag to a bull.

frieda- do you have an ASD child? My ds1- three and a half was dx in May (although we knew for longer). if you happen to be in the SW let me know- I've started parent's coffee mornings- we had one today- just to get together and moan.....

Jimjams ? that's really thoughtful of you. It's actually my brother?s child who?s ASD. (We also have a cousin who was vaccine damaged some years ago, which is why I?m wary about MMR).
Thanks, anyway.