Measles Cases Soaring Across Europe

[jim360]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45246049

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-6078639/Travellers-urged-check-vaccination-status-European-measles-cases-soar.html

The panic of the 1990s coming back to bite us?

Also spreading somewhat in the US too, albeit currently at much lower rates. But measles was declared extinct in the US only 18 years ago, so that it's back there at all is a cause for concern.

[Prudie]

If they were that concerned they should separate out the MMR and vaccinate against measles independently.

[Sqad]

Good post Jim, there are a very few Drs left who have seen the devastation that measles can produce.
Thanks to a certain Dr Wakefield most of the population are now immuno- compromised against the disease.

[jim360]

That would be pandering to pseudoscience, Prudie, so on that alone it's a bad suggestion. It's also the case that separate vaccines are slightly less efficient, both in medical terms and in overall uptake.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mmr-vaccine-dispelling-myths/measles-mumps-rubella-mmr-maintaining-uptake-of-vaccine

[Jackdaw33]

As a child I ran the full gamut of childhood diseases. Thankfully we no longer hear of scarlet fever or diphtheria.

[Prudie]

Well if it's pandering then we have to lump it. The facts are, even though it maybe absolute bunkum, the scare scared people. Once someone says something like that no amount of scientific remonstrations will take it completely away.
You didn't have a baby at the time, you are looking at it from a completely detached and scientific viewpoint.

[mushroom25]

Andrew Wakefield may have once been discredited. but on the bandwagon of pseudoscience - particularly the brand that has the pharmaceutical megaliths marked down as only out to shaft us - he now has the ear of some very powerful people.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/22/snake-oil-medicine-politics-andrew-wakefield

[jim360]

We have a new generation now, with parents who are hopefully less susceptible to 1990s scare stories.

As I said, there are reasons to believe that the single-vaccine treatment is less effective overall, so pandering wouldn't solve the problem anyway. Additionally, in the UK at least, MMR take-up has been increasing somewhat over the last decade, also supporting the idea that education has had an impact.

I might not have had children in the 1990s, but my parents did (albeit before the 1998 MMR Wakefield lies). So it's not exactly true that I am unaware of the potential emotional impact.

[Peter Pedant]

Good post Jim, there are a very few Drs left who have seen the devastation that measles can produce. Measles is still around

// https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/measles-outbreak-feared-cases-confirmed-14165359//

I am one of the few still to have seen smallpox (Hackney 1976)

what is happening ( also described before ) is that holiday makers are bringing it back and seeding it in an under-vaccinated population. - and that is due to well intentioned parents endagering their children by failing to have them vaccinated.

Occurred with squaddies in Egypt in the fifties - they werent vaccinated against polio and got it when they did national service in Egypt. But .... permanent paralysis is more likely if you get polio over the age of twenty

oh and for the person who thinks single vaccination is good...
it isnt

[poppy16]

just get the children vaccinated, as a childrens nurse, I do remember the devastating 90's with measles its such a debilitating illness at best and fatal at worst

[Peter Pedant]

// Andrew Wakefield may have once been discredited. but on the bandwagon of pseudoscience//

Rich Americans have been supporting him - the dent in his reputation was not from being struck off by the GMC , but that the Lancet withdrew the paper and accepted it was a load of crap

The italian health minister has said he is not a believer in vaccination ( what !?) and the italian quangoes have told him that if he is to change settled policy - - - then he has to have evidence ......

[Peter Pedant]

Matteo Salvini is making a fool of himself here

https://video.ilmessaggero.it/salvini_vaccini_dannosi_video_22_giugno_2018-3812509.html

[Peter Pedant]

and yeah yeah the usual suspects will say
oh! oh! it is in forrin - we dont do forrin ! - if it is not in English it cant be true! that is what we have brexit for!

the schools system are excluding unvaccinated kids and our Matteo is saying that the vaccs are not useful and dangerous. And no bambino should be excluded from eez school on account of it

[Samuraisan]

I am going to say it:) Any chance it could be all these illegal immigrants invading our shores?

[Flonska]

At one time, didn't a certain UK Prime Minister come in for some flak over measles and the (MMR) vaccine when the chief medical officer criticised him for seeking to protect his family privacy in 2001, instead of acting in the public interest?

[ichkeria]

Matteo Salvini in Italy for years was involved in a campaign there against the MMR vaccine. As a result many more Italian children died of measles. It’s actually quite shocking. Our area has recently organised emergency vaccination centres throughout the summer for children who may have missed out.

[Jackdaw33]

I remember the controversy but not the details. Was it not claimed that there was a connection between MMR and autism?

[ichkeria]

That’s right

[-Talbot-]

I'm quite sure legal migrants can also contract measles, Samuraisan.

[pixie374]

I didn't think the panic was that early. I had three children in the 90s who had the vaccination. It was when my youngest was due to be vaccinated (around 2004) that I remember asking the nurse about it- although maybe I am remembering the wrong child.
They were obviously prepared for questions as the nurse showed me the study and also described one occasion of having to resuscitate a baby with measles ten times in one night, so all mine had theirs.
My youngest child actually is autistic, but that was obvious from when he was 8 months and nothing to do with the jab. He also had scarlet fever, jackdaw. I don't think it has gone.

[jim360]

I think it lingered for a few years -- indeed, it predates Wakefield to an extent -- but the Wakefield paper was released in 1998, and it took some time for the paper to be withdrawn and the fraud to be exposed. But it still hasn't died away entirely, sadly.