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Measles
in General chat
Just had an email from the kids school, apparently there is a confirmed outbreak of measles in KS1. I'm in West Kent. I vaguely remember there being a mini outbreak here a year or so ago, but I am a bit worried for my littlest dude as he's only had the one inoculation so far.
Hope it's just a one off and nothing to do with the Swansea epidemic. Do people really still not have their children immunised because of that subsequently disproved MMR report?
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Scary if that is the case Ssshh.
I think so, there has been a lot of stuff on DW about it
It's crazy isn't it, in places like Africa these poor people with nothing will walk for miles and miles and queue for hours to get their children vaccinated whereas in this country where we have it all so easy, people refuse it and put their children (and others) at risk. I cannot understand it.
BTW I live in Swansea and there's no way any of my kids is dying from measles, no thanks, they have all had their MMRs - youngest got her second one a year early.
Yes, there's still plenty of people who refuse to allow their children to be immunised unfortunately, and all sorts of theories going round about it. I don't understand them at all, it just seems completely sensible to protect your child from a disease like measles that can kill.
See, it's all very well refusing to have your own child immunised if it's only your own child it will affect if they happen to contract these horrid diseases, but it's not is it. They are the reason the disease spreads to pregnant women, very young babies or the weak and infirm, inevitably those are the people it causes serious health issues for. Bit selfish IMO.
Well health visitors are advising people with babies here under 6m old to not go to playgroups and so on, to minimise the risk of catching it :-( Very unfair.
Totally agree.
very scary, i work in a hospital, in a department where our children have had transplants and are on medicine to lower there immune system, we have had loads of calls about this.
Total madness not to immunise. Hope your wee dude is ok Sssh.
As an aside, do you think this measles outbreak will tail off in south Wales as we're going to Tenby in August, or will it just snowball and spread across the country by then? L will be 7 months old then and I don't want to put her at any unnecessary risk.
We've had a letter today about confirmed cases in the area. My son has had both jabs but my 2.5 yo daughter has only had the first as not due the second for another 6 months-1 year. But she's had the first so should have some immunity. It's the little babies that are too young to even have had the first one that worries me. Why would you not vaccinate a child?!
My SIL only just had her daughters vaccinated today at 11 and 13 yrs old. I was actually completely shocked when she told me. My first though was she put my children at risk when they were babies, before they were vaccinated.
I'm glad for my nieces sakes that its now done but still annoyed at SIL.
Sshh he can have the second jab now. Both of mine had their second one at 16 months as it was the new initiative here to dose earlier. They can have it any time as long as its at least three months after the first dose.
DS, I've read about people having their babies vaccinated with the first MMR jab from 6 months if they're going to be visiting an affected area, so it's worth checking if you can get that done for L - although if they have it done before a year I believe they still have to have two more jabs for them to be fully protected.
As Pip says, you can have the jab done earlier. I can understand why people worried about having children vaccinated in the past, and then they just forgot that they hadn't had the vaccinations done.
Of course, there are people out there who argue that the world is flat so there are going to be people who believe that MMR is some giant conspiracy.
Thanks Pip, I was going to call the GP about this today. I checked their red books as I remembered one of the kids had the 2nd MMR early because of an outbreak, it was Big C so I'll get C sorted too.
DS, I've read about people having their babies vaccinated with the first MMR jab from 6 months if they're going to be visiting an affected area, so it's worth checking if you can get that done for L - although if they have it done before a year I believe they still have to have two more jabs for them to be fully protected.
Thanks DD, I'll give my GPs a ring and find out. X
I'm originally from S.Wales and going back for a wedding on the weekend. My mother was in her Drs surgery last wk when they cleared it out as they were bringing a baby in. We presume with measles. I've phoned my Drs and spoken to the nurse. I'm having both of them jabbed on Friday. My eldest is 3 yrs 6 wks, so she's having her booster a little early, but that's fine. My youngest is 6 months. She can have the jab, no problem, but will still need to have it at 12 months and 3 1/2 as the immunity doesn't last if they have it before 1, (according to the nurse I spoke to). I'm not too happy about S having an extra set of jabs, but I'm not risking it. We're jut getting over chicken pox and that was bad enough. It makes me so cross that the media hype from a few years ago have made people afraid to have their kids inoculated and personally, I still would do even if there was a small link to autism. I'd rather an autistic child (which could happen anyway) than a dead, or seriously brain damaged one. If everyone was made to inoculate, the disease would die out in the same was a smallpox did.