Measles

[brynteg11]

is spreading rapidly in the South Wales area especially in near by Swansea. Please think about having your children immunised if they haven't already been. (I do appreciate that many people have strong views on this but the damage that can be caused by measles is awful).

[brynteg11]

lots of teenagers are being immunised here in the hope that they can avoid being ill during the coming exam season.

[captainbovine]

I don't think they are stressing the importance of the vaccination enough.

[brynteg11]

It's in our news every day at the moment with clinics being held at the weekends as there have been 700 cases since November in the Swansea area.

[brynteg11]

for anyone interested

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22143124

[hightara]

having the scare with measles linked to autism years ago....... i still immunised all of my children. even though at that time i had a child with autism

thank you bry............. this is a serious and possibly deadly virus

[mandymoosie]

Yes I agree.

Every parent should get their child immunised as soon as possible, there are always scares to do with vaccinations, but you have to keep it in prospective.

Measles can cause horrendous problems and damage and, in my opinion, it's just not worth taking the risk of your child catching it.

I do so hope that they can stop the spread quickly and parents get their children safe with having the vaccine.

[chickengrandma-2008]

I can't remember if they did vaccinations forty years ago. If they did, my kids will have had it and all four grandchildren had the MMR.  I was never vaccinated though and I've never had measles.  I wonder if I'm at risk?:O  (not that I live anywhere near Wales:^O)

[stroppy*cow]

Eldest son had the single measles vaccine (all that there was at that time)

When MMR came out, he had the MMR vaccine too.

He went on to have measles 4 times and mumps twice

I refused to make him have the second MMR booster dose as I figured that if he wasn't immune by then he never would be!

[bitsnknots]

My Goddaughter had the MMR jab when she was a baby and she had mumps when she was about 14.  She was really bad with it.

[bitsnknots]

Meant to add that at both our local hospitals, they advise not to take children in under the age of 18 months old due to measles.  I live in north west England and there was a bad measles outbreak here a while back.

[hightara]

my friend a couple of years older than me took measles......her under-neath was horrendous

get the flipping jab:-x

[guardpig]

Son had the mmr and the pre school booster.  Then they called him again a year later insisting he hadn't had a booster.  Had always had my doubts about boosters so I drew the line and said no more.  After all would you trust a health authority that cannot keep it's records straight and calls parents "liars"?.   My daughter decided to have the teenage booster when offered.  When she was pregnant with Sproglet it turned out she had no immunity at all to German Measles(they didn't check any others) despite having been vaccinated for the second time 2 years previously.  Hmm.  Doc wanted her to have the jab again, without consulting me, she has told him she isn't wasting her time having it 'cos it don't work!!  Sproglet's vaccinations are up to date but I somehow doubt the boosters will be happening.

Personally, with information gleaned from other parents and medical sources and knowing what I know now there is no way my son would have had the mmr at 18 months, single jabs would have been the better option for him.  It didn't affect him but I suspect we were lucky.  I think Tony Blair's denying worried parents the single jabs bordered on criminal, especially as he refused to say whether his son had the MMR and, let's face it, if the kid had had it he'd have said so.

They should be concentrating on a decent vaccine.  The one they have may be very good at containing the disease but that is all it will ever do.  It just doesn't work for too many people and the slightest drop in vaccination rates can lead to a localised epidemic..

Measles is nasty - I had it when I was 4 and I can still remember it!.

[numptz2012]

All of ours have been vacinated with no probs. The only person who has problems is me! Whenever I've given birth, I have to wait until I've stopped breast feeding and then go and have the MMR booster as for some weird reason, the baby leeches all of my immunity. They did check to see if it was pregnancy by testing me when I didn't have a bun in the oven and Yep, deffo the baby:-)

Yes, I know, unique:8}:^O

[huggles1253]

My youngest had everything except the pre-school booster. He was a handful already and I was worried then that the booster might set something off. He's 17 now and I think when I get home I'll talk to him but really at his age I feel it's his decision whether to have  a booster or not.

[tintinthegingertomcat]

Thankfully I have had my son immunised with the MMR jab.....I took no notice of all the hype that was about at the time and so glad I did. Mind you as a child I had them all - measles, mumps, chicken pox and german measles.....it was the only time I ever had to miss school. I remember when I had mumps it took all day to eat one small meal as it was so painful.

[fishpieface]

I too had measles when I was about five, I can just remember it.  I also had whooping cough and german measles. the latter of which I can't remember having but when tested for whether or not I'd had it, apparently I had!  My mum never had any of us immunised against anything, not sure whether it's 'cos she didn't believe in it or didn't trust the "authorities" incase they found out any closely guarded secrets of hers!

My son didn't have MMR but we are going to arrange a measles jab for him.  Nobody wants epidemics of supposedly eradicated illnesses, but then again, no mum wants to see something adverse happen to their child due to something like a jab.  At the time MMR was very contraversial, controversy which now appears completely unfounded as the person at the base of it all has been struck off the medical register. 

Very difficult to do what's right and one has to decide, given the information they have at the time.  My son's had all the other jabs.