Uk 'eliminates Measles' For First Time

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41399850

A Good News story !

[mikey4444]

"Humans are just really bad at understanding risk assessment, basically"

Jim....you may be right, but the issue with the MMR jab was that people preferred to believe Wakefield, rather than their own GP.

Wakefield is now widely discredited and isn't even a doctor anymore, having been struck off in May 2010, and is now spreading his deeply flawed research in America, where perhaps the population could be described as more credulous than here at home.

[youngmafbog]

Whilst we have unfettered and often illegal immigration we will never eliminate any disease.

[mikey4444]

YMB....doesn't seem to have stopped us eliminating Smallpox ?

[youngmafbog]

If there was a world wide campaign in a similar vein we might. But until then the UK cannot entirely eliminate measles (RE you OP)

Shame, it's not a pleasant disease at all. I still remember having it.

[mikey4444]

YMB......."The global health body classes a country as having eliminated the disease when it has stopped it freely circulating for at least three years"

I am sure Sqad can define that better for you, if you don't quite understand !

[sapelesam]

Measles eliminated, spot on.

[jim360]

"Jim....you may be right, but the issue with the MMR jab was that people preferred to believe Wakefield, rather than their own GP."

Well yes, but that was (at least partly) because they didn't understand how to assess the risks properly. That and the all-too-common distrust people have in expert opinion. It's a toxic cocktail -- which is ironic, because that's exactly what the MMR jab isn't.

[Old_Geezer]

"While there are still small clusters..."
Doesn't sound very eliminated to me.

[mikey4444]

The WHO defines elimination in that way OG.

[Peter Pedant]

s/o wobndering why it was a killer

https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/173/10/1211/184695/Extreme-Mortality-After-First-Introduction-of

discussion about first measles in the pacific
[including some died in droves and some didnt]

and the classic - measles in the Faroe Islands 1846
http://www.deltaomega.org/documents/PanumFaroeIslands.pdf

I thought 60% croaked - nothing like 3-5% - mostly under fives the great majority under one

[Peter Pedant]

//Whilst we have unfettered and often illegal immigration we will never eliminate any disease.//

um yeah like small pox, plague rabies and ebola - rap on YMF !
( diphtheria, polio)

and in the drives to eliminate polio, vaccination in various patterns was top of the list and second and third

I love these outbreaks of alt-right reason on AB !

[Jackdaw33]

When I was small people used to have measles parties where other kids would go to catch the disease and get it over with. Measles is a walk in the park compared to shingles. A far greater child-killer was diphtheria, of which you never hear these days.

[Mamyalynne]

Diphtheria is greatly reduced due to vaccination.

[douglas9401]

'eliminates Measles' may be somewhat rash.

[Peter Pedant]

diphtheria - jesus was there any last year ?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/609001/hpr1317_dphthr2.pdf

yeah six-ish - four cutaneous ( where? - the skin)
96% of the population are vaccinated and the six werent

interesting dynamic system - the naughty bacterium is 'bigger' than the innocent sort and so in a vaccinated population the bigger naughty one trades at a disadvantage - and dies out !

( the toxic bacterium has longer DNA - to code for the toxin geddit? - than the innocent one and so requires more energy to multiply and is at an darwinian disadvantage )

[ sorry cant resist technical comments like this and the ensuing avalanche of:
wot dat den ? what means toxic den ? cant help dair den!
didnt do reading at skool den - and I can see why! Darwin - didnt he invent electricity? wot he doin here den? I blame Crick and What's on? yeah what's on later den ? ]

[Togo]

PP you forgot Tuberculosis at 20:03.

[Sqad]

Jackdaw......I think that you are getting confused........you mean German measles. This is a different disease than measles and the big danger is that of catching it whilst pregnant as it can adversely effect the unborn foetus. That is why they had measles parties ..GERMAN Measles, to catch it as a child to minimise the effect during pregnancy.

[woofgang]

I think part of the issue with the MMR jab was the way that the information and the decision was presented. There was definitely a public attitude of "Us big clever people know more than you little ignorant people so we are going to MAKE you do what we think is the right thing" Then Tony Blair wouldn't say what he had decided to do about his own son. It felt like the genuine, if mistaken concerns, of parents were not being respected.

[woofgang]

Sqad, in the days before vaccination, yes it used to be thought by some people that it was a good idea to get the childish illnesses over with and some people did hold measles parties and chicken pox parties as well as german measles parties. I never went to one as my mum thought it was a stupid idea.

[Togo]

Bliar and the wicked witch had their kids injected with cash... Ours.