Measles Parties
Measles Parties
Measles parties are raising their ugly heads again due to lack of
sensible advice. The reason they are being talked about is that
many parents are nervous of the MMR and single measles vaccines,
and are seeking other ways of giving their children immunity
against measles. They believe that gaining immunity by giving
their child the full blown disease is a safer way to achieve this
than by vaccination.
(Note: for more information on the MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) Vaccine,
please visit this page.
The reasoning behind this is uncertain, though it is doubtful
that parents would knowingly put their children at risk by giving
them immunity against a killer disease through deliberately
letting them be infected by that same killer disease.
The purpose of immunity is to ensure that a person will not
contract a disease, especially at a time when the disease could
be especially harmful. Fatality due to measles is highest in
children, so where is the logic in parents ensuring that their
children catch it?
In the 1940s and 1950s mumps and German measles parties were
common when anyone in the street had either of these diseases.
There were, and still are, specific reasons for these two
diseases being chosen by parents as ones their children must have
before adulthood.
Mumps and German measles are not serious in children, unless
their immune system is impaired by, for example, AIDS or HIV
viruses, certain cancer treatments or steroidal treatments for
asthma. However, if caught as an adult, mumps can cause
infertility in men and also affects the ovaries of women, which
is not so well known. Infertility is relatively rare, but it can
occur, and in any case is very painful after puberty.
German measles (rubella) cause defects in the developing fetus,
and if the mother catches this disease within the first 12 weeks
of pregnancy, the child has up to a 90% chance of being born with
a defect. This reduces to 20% if between weeks 10-16. After 16-20
weeks it is rare for the fetus to be affected.
There are many types of defect which can occur, including sight
and hearing defects, heart defects and mental retardation.
It makes sense, therefore, to ensure that these two diseases are
contracted as children, not adults. Perhaps parents are confusing
German measles parties with normal measles. The two are not
related. The term 'German' has no connection with the country.
It likely comes from the Latin germanus meaning ‘similar’, and
the two diseases do have many symptoms in common, though are
caused by different viruses and have very different outcomes,
depending on the age of the sufferer.
German measles is much more serious in post pubescent females,
especially when newly pregnant, while measles is much more
dangerous in young children where 80% of deaths caused by this
respiratory infection are ultimately from the associated
pneumonia. Many survivors suffer from complications such as
partial or full deafness, sight defects, meningitis and
encephalitis. On the other hand, measles is less dangerous in a
healthy adult.
From 1999 to 2004, the global annual death rate due to measles
dropped from 871,000 to 454,000 mainly due to vaccination, so
measles is still a killer. The vast majority of deaths have been
in children, around 25% under 12 months old. This year has seen
the first measles deaths in the UK for 14 years. Deaths will
increase if parents insist on sending their kids to measles
parties as a way of avoiding the vaccine.
If a parent wants a child to receive immunity to measles, it
would be far safer to achieve it by means of a vaccination than
the full blown disease. The vaccination gives the child a mild
dose of the infection to enable the body's immune system to
create antibodies against the measles virus.
That parents refuse to accept this, and so put their children at
risk, may be for two reasons: a misconception that measles is as
innocuous to children as German measles, and a belief that the
MMR, or the single measles vaccine, will do their child more harm
than the disease itself. Perhaps they are unaware that the
vaccine is a diluted form of the real live vaccine, and that any
side effect must therefore be less serious than from the real
disease.
Naturally, any live vaccine can cause side effects. However, the
instances of these are well below those of the full disease which
is a known killer. This is why the vaccine was developed in the
first place. Studies have indicated that there have been no known
deaths through the MMR vaccine. Had this not been the case the
500 million doses so far given world-wide, the associated death
rate would have been expected to compare with a death rate of up
to 200,000 from a similar number of measles cases.
Comparisons of other side effects show similar results. Young
children with measles have a 1 in 250 chance of contracting
meningitis while with MMR this is one in every million children
vaccinated. Convulsions are one in 200 measles cases but one in a
thousand MMR cases.
If the MMR child has a convulsion it is publicized throughout the
media; not so for a normal measles case.
All of this indicates that governments and health authorities are
doing a poor job of educating parents and explaining what these
vaccines are. Today's parents are too young to have lived in the
old days when children died from measles - hundreds every year in
England alone.
From the content of letters which appear in the media, and
discussions overheard, it is very obvious that there is a
misconception of the real nature of the disease.
Those most at risk from measles are children under 5. Over 80%
of the annual measles death rate of 454,000 are in this age
group, about 25% under 12 months as previously stated, and 80% of
these die from pneumonia. Measles is a respiratory disease. It
is generally not fatal in adults unless very old and
undernourished.
Where is the sense, then, in deliberately giving children a
disease, in order to somehow make them immune to it as adults, at
an age when the death rate from that disease is highest? They
are much safer to catch it as an adult. There is no sense or
logic and this indicates a total lack of education and
understanding.
For additional articles and news about vaccinations, see these:
- What would happen if we stopped vaccinations? For comments, visit
this site
- Why can't science produce a vaccination program for the common cold? This, along with 2 other cold/flu related articles, can be read
here
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