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In thinking about my husband and I, our seven brothers and sisters, our own
children, and about 25 nieces and nephews, not to mention hundreds of cousins,
I do not know of a single death from measles.
It's awfully easy to tell people to toughen up and that children dying and suffering irreversible harm is just part of the "circle of life" when you've been lucky enough to avoid that particular horror.
A titre involves a painful blood test and possibly quite a lot of expense (three titres), plus possibly getting the vaccine anyway. A booster is one less painful jab, which is probably covered by insurance.
Anyone vaccinated before 1990 should have a booster, because that was when the schedule changed to include two injections rather than just one.
With each injection, a certain percentage of people will become immune (depends on age, can be as low as 75% in nine month olds). Having two means that more people become immune.
That's good information. I have asked my spouse to schedule an appointment for a booster ASAP. Neither one of us received a second injection when we were young. Unfortunately, it appears I am not a candidate for a booster, because it is contraindicated for those receiving immunomodulatory therapy.
That's good information. I have asked my spouse to schedule an appointment for a booster ASAP. Neither one of us received a second injection when we were young. Unfortunately, it appears I am not a candidate for a booster, because it is contraindicated for those receiving immunomodulatory therapy.
I'll be looking into this as well as we have a grandbaby on the way. Can't be too safe.
In thinking about my husband and I, our seven brothers and sisters, our own children, and about 25 nieces and nephews, not to mention hundreds of cousins, I do not know of a single death from measles.
I do. There were measles outbreaks in the 70's. I caught it in high school and was so sick I was hospitalized. A couple of years later there was another outbreak and a friend of mine caught it. And died. She was 20 and an only child.
The numbers in current outbreaks are still very low, so I probably shouldn't be worried, but I think it's natural for parents to overreact to these sorts of things. I have a 10 month old daughter who isn't scheduled to receive the MMR vaccine for a few months. Is there anything I should do differently to help protect my daughter until then? My wife and I are both vaccinated, as are all the kids at daycare. It's not a problem in Massachusetts yet, but there are lots of locals in Arizona this week for the Superbowl.
You can ask your pedi to give your child the MMR now. It won't count toward her two doses, but it has a very strong chance (well over 74 percent) of conferring immunity. Then she can get her "real" first dose at 12 months old, and her second one at 14 months old. Then you can stop worrying.
That's good information. I have asked my spouse to schedule an appointment for a booster ASAP. Neither one of us received a second injection when we were young. Unfortunately, it appears I am not a candidate for a booster, because it is contraindicated for those receiving immunomodulatory therapy.
Don't worry too much. You have a 95% chance of having acquired immunity from the first dose.
ugh this scares me too, I'm about to have my second baby in the summer. I really hope it's not going to get worse by then.
However, this is precisely why, when my son was a baby, I followed common sense rules for not exposing him to germs unnecessarily - measles is not the only thing out there, chicken pox, rsv, mrsa, or the flu can be just as deadly for an infant. I avoided taking him to crowded indoor places, especially in winter, and to those indoor playplaces until he was two. I didn't take him to the mall in the midst of christmas shopping. I didn't let him crawl around on the floor in public places, as I've seen so many parents do. I had him in the stroller in public, not the grocery cart, until he was old enough not to suck on the cart handle. I made sure to sanitize my own hands in between paying and touching him, and wipe down his hands if he happened to grab something. I didn't let him play with the toys in the doctors office - and we'd wait outside or in the car if the waiting room had a bunch of coughing kids. Just common sense things to me to protect a young baby, but I can't tell you how many times I've been scoffed at and called overprotective, and told off that I'm not letting my kid develop a healthy immune system blah blah. Whatever - babies are fragile! I've seen friends' babies hospitalized for things like RSV and I wasn't about to take the chance.
Be careful, stay away from crowded, germy, kiddie places, and make sure anyone who's in actual contact with the baby is vaxed, and you should be fine.
Measles is airborne. It's highly contagious. It remains infectious in an enormous area over an hour after someone infected has passed through. If you wanted to protect your baby, you'd have to never take him out of the house until after he was a year old.
Or we could enforce universal immunization for measles on everyone who doesn't have a MEDICAL exemption. Then the babies would be safe.
My mother, born in the early 1930's, clearly remembers her house sporting a quarantine sign too, in NYC, because her brother had the measles.
There's been a story, widely covered this week, where a 3 yr old who had received his first MMR shot still ended up hospitalized with it. Many kids don't get the 2nd dose until around the age of 5 as part of the required school entrance immunizations. But, it can be given earlier. If I had a little one, I think I'd look into it.
You can have your second measles immunization as early as four weeks after the first. Right now, I'd plan on doing it at 12 months and a month or two later. 95% of people become immune from the first shot. Over 99% are immune after 2nd dose.
Everyone who walked through his car, or rode in a car that he had walked through, has been exposed. Possibly as many as 1/100 fully immunized people would still contract it. And of course, those unimmunized, or too young to have received the vaccine, and old enough that maternal antibody is gone (over 4 months old), are likely to get it.
This is bad, Dory.
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