Measles outbreak and MMR vaccinations: live webchat with Department of Health director of immunisation Professor David Salisbury, Tuesday 9 April, 2-3pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

In light of the measles outbreaks in South Wales and higher than average levels of measles in some areas of England, and concerns reflected in MNers' discussions, we've invited Professor David Salisbury, the government's director of immunisation, back to MN to be our webchat guest tomorrow, Tuesday 9 April, at 2pm.

Please post any questions you have about the MMR vaccine for your children, or yourself, to Professor Salisbury.

Thank you.

saintly - I have written to PHS directly, hoping for some numbers faster than the next eurosurveillance article. HPA were very good about passing them on to me last year, too. Too few people to keep track of too many patient records I think. One would wish for an outbreak management system that would keep track of things, given that the NHS already has a big brother like computer system (in a good way from the epidemiological point of view).

Clementine - if you had natural measles infection they will probably have quite good coverage, if they were vaccinated maybe not (this is all info available on the HPA website and I can link if you would like).

Talk to your GP. Babies can be given MMR but if given under a year they will need to have the normal regular 13 month and pre-school MMR jabs as well - so 3 doses in total.

Go and vaccinate - where?

Yes I agree Catherina - would be interested in any response you get. I was VERY surprised by the 25% figure but have no idea where it came from or how it broke down (1 versus 2 shots, age etc)

In America is is accepted that vaccinations increase the risk of SIDS.

that is not true. There might be some web sites/anti-vaccine publication claiming that is the case, but any large study which has looked at the connection either finds no effect of vaccines on SIDS or a protective effect of age-appropriate vaccination.

I dont know if I have had measles or the protection.

My gps doesn't know, they didn't or wont say anything like with whooping cough.

They are useless.

Cochrane was not confident about the safety studies: "largely inadequate" was their verdict even in 2012, was it not?

"Plenty of studies"..... "Most were unvaccinated". This is so vague. I appreciate its difficult to have all the empirical evidence at your fingertips, but this does not give me any faith in so called "evidence based" medicine. Surely as a professor in this field you can quote some studies by name etc.

oh fgs, this place gets ever more big-brother like.

this is rapidly becoming not worth it anymore - a shame, as Mn used to be a place where a lot of htings could be questioned.

sadly not anymore.

oh, and could I ask who reported my post? (since apparently posts are only delete if reported?) - and what was so offensive about it?

Clementine if you're in an outbreak area they might have been given more recent advice. If you're not and not travelling to an outbreak area my guess is that they would say stick with the regular schedule. Maybe change your GP though in the long run , some are good at talking this stuff through, some not so much - and your questions are valid ones and the role of the GP to address.

Do please make reference to these large studies Catherina. As I said, common sense would suggest that anything that makes a young infant ill, especially with a raised temp. is likely to increase the risk of SIDS.

OMG silverfrog you were deleted!!! Was that the one where you said he didn't really answer anything.

Shame on you MNHQ :waits for post to go pop:

yep, it was the one which said the webchat had been most informative

and that the official line would appear to be to go and vaccinate, not ask questions, and that there didn't really seem to be a handle on efficacy rates or how long immunity lasted (surely if these figures were known, they would have been shared? )

MDC - I think that is a problem that has not been addressed here either - many GPs are not properly trained, maybe because the infant vaccinations are done by the Health Visitor? When I had question regarding my pre-teens' boosters, my GP gave me the infant vaccination schedule. The fact that mother who suspect their children have mumps or measles are sent into the general waiting room is scandalous as well!

Hmmm I sort of expected a few more answers....

I could have told you all to go vaccinate!

Cochrane also says:

Exposure to the MMR vaccine was unlikely to be associated with autism, asthma, leukaemia, hay fever, type 1 diabetes, gait disturbance, Crohn's disease, demyelinating diseases, bacterial or viral infections.

Strange how that is always omitted by anti vaccine-critical posters.

That was me! And I honestly couldn't believe it when I said 'er should I be sitting in a busy waiting room with my child with suspected measles' and they then sent me into a side room with a baby!!! WTAF?

Actually that's one question he did answer. Despite the fact that ds1 was vaccinated against measles he should still have been tested. So saying 'it can't be measles as he has been vaccinated' was not the correct procedure.

the official line would appear to be to go and vaccinate

that is the most sensible course of action in the middle of a measles outbreak though.

ITA with you on that one, Saintly - that is travesty.

he was largely uninformative I'm afrad

yes, I was really glad to find out that my GP was also negligant last year when dd2 presented with mumps. (and half of her year also...)

I ownder why doctors are so reluctant to test suspected cases, when it is policy to test?

are those budget constraints? I was floored at the titer testing prices at my travel clinic. £80 for measles alone...