Just how dangerous is the measles in a healthy, well nourished child?

[WinkyWinkola]

I'm just wondering. Anybody have any info they could point me towards, please?

I'm not anti vax or anything but after a few conversations with older relatives about childhood diseases, not one of them remembers the measles as being anything other than a common childhood disease. I'm interested in finding out more........

yesI should also say that I come from a poor/working class background, which might affect my family perspective, although in fairness I should say my mother's side of the family were never exactly slum dwellers

Most children with measles do recover from it with no lasting side-effects.

But many don't. And it can be fatal; there were a couple of measles deaths in the Birmingham area last year that made the news. Of course that's a small number in a large area, but it can and sometimes is fatal.

My dd (now 4)was very ill with it. She was 14 mths when she got it.
Seriously high temp for 9 days I'm talking 43deg C, no food, still breastfed ok.
she lost an awful lot of weight, ended up as a fail to thrive and took months to recover physically although she did "handle" the illness itself in her own stoic way.
In 1991 my youngest brother was a strapping 16 yr old, he caught measles in the epidemic that hit NZ that year
He nearly died as he started fitting and had inflamed brain lining and had visual problems for months afterwards, nearly failing his school cert (GCSE equiv)

Then balance that with the fact that my ds (now 13)whom I was keen to vaccinate due to nearly losing my brother, went into anaphylactic shock with his MMR vacc.
So rock and hard place is a fair assessment.
it's simply a chance you take