'Unprecedented' rise in measles

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link

The BBC this morning have a story about an unprecedented rise in measles cases over the last year.
I'll C+P to save you clicking the link

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There is an "unprecedented increase" in measles cases in England and Wales, experts report.

Data from the Health Protection Agency showed there were 1,217 cases of measles from January to November 2008.

And 75% of the 115 cases diagnosed in November were outside the traditional hotspot of London - in the north west, west midlands and south east.

The HPA's Dr Mary Ramsay said the rise in cases was due to "relatively low" MMR uptake over the past decade.

If you had complained the nurse would probably have been in serious trouble. Regardless of any controversy around the MMR she cant just go injecting your child with things that you havent agreed to.

daftpunk - you made the right decision for your children. It doesn't make it the right decision for others. If the DoH is seriously worried about the increase in measles then it should offer single vax. It can do this without admitted any link, they just have to acknowledge that some parents have lost confidence.

Wakefield has always said MMR is safe for the majority. The current hypothesis is that MMR may account for around 7% of all autism cases - certainly not for all autism. The problem is, more research needs to be carried out to see whether a small group of potentially vulnerable children can be identified.Thing is the govt, who are interested in both public health and public spending, feel if they were to back research or offer single vaccines, they would spark a bigger scare and measles cases would continue to rise, so i can see why they are following the approach they have chosen.

daftpunk

I don't want a reason for my sons severe autism. But when a normally developing child looses eye contact, speech and developing skills at 18 months and within weeks of his MMR. And then gets food and gut issues appear as well. you do tend to look for ways to help him.

I obviously have a huge extended net work of friends with children with autism and actually people in my experience are very open and honest about where they percive their childs issues to have come from. Most of my friends point to a genetic link . Those of us who had children who regressed violently tend to be more severe and those children are often the ones whose symptoms can be improved through diet and biomedical

I would be very happy for it not to be the MMR actually.
But sadly for my son it did do him enormous damage. Fortunately his type of reaction is rare.
But it is real

and actually I am going to hide this now.
There have been lots of posts about MMR lately and i have been finding it all quite hard to take.

I will leave you all to it.

they couldn't do that....unworkable.

you either have the MMR or single vaccines...you can't have both.

"Couldn't" or "Wouldn't"?

In France, you can choose to have MMR or you can choose to have Measles single vaccine, all on securite sociale.

Totally workable.

Lets get this back on topic shall we?

This is a post about the rise in measles cases in the UK.

My heart goes out to all of those children and families who will be affected by it. It can be a truly devastating and horrifying disease

we are on topic.

pagwatch - poor you. Especially after that massive thread a few weeks ago about the same thing.....

Hopefully, most people know that a parent is not stupid and knows when their child has clearly regressed. And nobody has the right to be so patronising as to question their judgement. When a child experiences a spectacular loss of acquired skills, then there HAS to be a trigger. For anyone to say otherwise is head-in-sand.

So daftpunk, when a child has a severe reaction to nuts, is that also the parent looking for 'a reason for anything bad that comes their way'?

i think it is easy to say it is co-incidence/parent has noticed it etc when you are not a first hand witness. As pag says, reactions like her ds's are extremely rare. No less devastating for those involved though.

parent has not noticed it.

the thing is, taking Wakefield's hypothesis that up to 7% of autism cases may be affected by MMR, nad with autism rates at 1 in 100 (conservative estimate) - that's not a negligible number, is it?

I mean, it's not one child every 10 years or so, out of the hundreds of thousands vaccinated (and even that would be one too many, imo, if it could be avoided). It's a significant number of children and families affected.

and because it is, obviously, a much smaller number than the thousands who are vaccinated safely each year, it wuold apear that it is ok to forge ahead with the vaccine, and not offer any alternatives.

Easy to say, yes but very dismissive and rude and offensive for the parent who has to deal with it every time someone expresses a view like that.

who would go with the MMR then, risk takers?

because that's how i'd see it....

"oh we have the single vaccines for the more discerning parent..but we still offer the MMR for those who throw caution to the wind"...

really, daftpunk? I thought nothing could convince you of a link between MMR and vaccine damage?

In which case, why would you see it as taking a risk to have MMR, even if single vaccines were on offer?

after all, the option is there for single vaccines at the moment, it is just that they are prohibitively expensive.

"who would go with the MMR then"

People like you, daftpunk, who are happy to do whatever their GP tells them.

wakefield's study cannot be proved or disproved as it was an exploratory one. All the paper said was that there may be a link and called for further research. It was the media that blew this out of proportion and suggested that the study could be used as concrete evidence.

well single vaccine should be offered to those whose families have significant history of autism, auto immune illness, and gut problems [ i mean the kind of gut problems that need a hospital referral] Personally if we didn't have these issues i would not be worried about the MMR.

Agree electra.

agree witch. More research needs to be done. It aint happening here.

I dont understand why you would go for the MMR if you thought that it could cause autism.

I think the main reasons to support it Vs singles are the fact it is just one jab, so less pain for the child, and that as it is one, rather than a series of jabs you are more likely to not miss out on any element of it.

I would have chosen the MMR vs the singles (and my DDs have all had the MMR), but I did think about it.
Of course if the MMR does cause autism then it is possible that the singles do too.

Jut is very good at explaining the 'atypical' measles exposure caused by MMR.
It would be interesting to see if any children have regressed followinh a single jab.

Jute i mean

i listen to my doctor yes, because i have faith in his judgement & ability.....i get the facts from my doctor...not google.

and no, i will never be convinced of the link silverfrog, i'm just saying you either go one way or the other...MMR or single vaccine....and as no link has ever been proven there is no point in offering single vaccines.

daftpunk you're being a bit rude to suggest that people here get their info from google. GPs with all due respect, are not generally very knowledgeable about vaccines. My ds's immunologist, tho stil pro vax, was not patronising and dismissive of our issues unlike our gp, and it was possible to have a reasoned discussion with him, unlike our gp.