Just how dangerous is the measles in a healthy, well nourished child?

[WinkyWinkola]

I'm just wondering. Anybody have any info they could point me towards, please?

I'm not anti vax or anything but after a few conversations with older relatives about childhood diseases, not one of them remembers the measles as being anything other than a common childhood disease. I'm interested in finding out more........

[Socci]

Message withdrawn

[Chandra]

I think that before the introduction of mass vaccination it was bad enough. Now, many people from my parents generation onwards seem to think is just a mild childhood illness but maybe because the cases they have seen are those of vaccinated children who only get a mild version of it.

I think looking at historic records on child mortality before the vaccines were introduced could give you a clear idea, although you may need to search deep for them.

[Cloudhopper]

I think one of the reasons for encouraging immunisations for healthy children is that over a certain percentage, you get what is known as 'herd immunity'. This essentially means that the disease won't spread because enough people are immune.

This protects children who aren't able to be vaccinated because of other health problems. Or ones who do have a depleted immune system.

[Aloha]

It used to be described as a mild childhood illness in medical textbooks! For most children it isnt serious, but your child could be unlucky enough to get a serious permanent problem such as partial deafness, you just can't tell.

[mankyscotslass]

Well, i have no personal experience of this, but when i was about 10 my friends brother had measles and developed swelling in his brain which has left him hanicapped for life....but to be fair this is the only case that i know of...

[expatinscotland]

Hard to say. My mother was a healthy, well-nourished child when she got it back in 1949. She attended a private school with other well-nourished, healthy children.

She lost partial hearing in her right ear.

Two of her classmates died.

I have a good friend who was healthy and well-nourished when he got measles in 1956.

He is fully blind and deaf in one ear, as he got meningitis as a complication of measles.

Luck of the draw?

I can't really say for sure.

[piglit]

My brother spent 2 weeks in hospital when he had measles. Measles caused him to suffer from terrible convulsions and he swallowed his tongue on 3 occasions.

[Chandra]

I had it as a baby before being vaccinated... I have a considerable hearing loss on both ears. It has not been devastating but it has always been a bit of a socially isolating problem IYWIM

[shonaspurtle]

One of my friends suffered permanent hearing loss from complications of measles. This was in the 1970s.

I don't know what the statistics are on the percentage of measles cases which develop complications though.

[Chandra]

And no, we were not poor, unhealthy or being exposed to any environment where this conditions could be fatal.

[expatinscotland]

Is the deafness from measles itself or the resulting fever?

I've asked my mother this, b/c she, too, lost about half her hearing in her right ear after having measles. She is in her 60s now, and that ear has also always given her problems since then - she has a grommet in it just now.

She said she did not have meningitis, though.

Alan, my pal, deffo had meningitis, however, as a complication. As he put it, I felt very ill, I went to sleep, and when I woke up, I was blind.

B/c he obviously cannot remember the meningitis part.

[mateychops]

I got measles in the early 70s - we weren't poor and I was very well nourished and healthy. There was a horrible smell from the illness that would permeate the room, and the room had to be kept dark for the fear of blindess. It was springtime, so it was absolutely rubbish as a kid.

There was a real fear about it, which makes me concerned when people don't appreciate why vaccines were developed in the first place.

[Spidermama]

I had it, my brother and sister had it, all my friends had it and my parents had it. We weren't scared of it in those days and nothing since has changed my mind.

[wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe]

my mum had an uncle who lost his sight as a result of measles.

My mil had measles as a child and she said she remembered feeling so ill she honestly thought she was going to die.

I think considering virtually everyone who has replied on this thread so far has known at least one person and some more, who have suffered long-term side effects as a result of measles goes to show that complications are more than just isolated cases.

[lulumama]

my uncle too has issues with eyesight due to childhood measles....

[Bugsy2]

Here are some facts:

It is a mild disease but complications are not uncommon. They include a severe cough and breathing difficulties (croup), ear infections, pneumonia and eye infections (conjunctivitis). In one in 1,000 cases it can cause encephalitis (swelling of the brain). A quarter of these cases result in permanent damage. In the 1940s and 1950s, 500 children died in the UK each year from measles. In the 1960s there were 100 deaths a year. The death in April 2006 of a boy aged 13 was the first in the UK for 14 years.

Between 1940 and 1970 cases fluctuated between 160,000 and 800,000 a year, with an epidemic every two years. From 1970, when the measles vaccine was introduced, cases fell as coverage hovered at 50 per cent. In 1987, the year before the triple MMR vaccine was introduced, there were 86,000 cases. Coverage continued to rise, to 92 per cent, until 1998.

[Winestein]

Would "tough as old boots" sum you and your family up Spidermama?

My mum had it and is partially deaf in one ear too. Seems to be a very common side effect.

[WigWamBam]

It was a common childhood disease when I was little, but it was still know to cause serious problems in some children.

When I was about 8, two otherwise healthy, well-nourished children in my class were hospitalised due to complications caused by measles. One had pneumonia and was in hospital for several weeks, one was seriously ill with encephalitis and suffered permanent brain damage.

I was also healthy and well nourished, but measles left me with considerable hearing loss in both ears and terrible tinnitus.

According to a medical book I have on my shelf, one in 15 children will develop bronchitis, ear infections or pneumonia. Encephalitis and brain infections are rarer but very serious.

[hannahsaunt]

The only person whom I know who had the measles ended up with severe mental and physical disabilities, lived for about another 8 years before dying at 17. It was absolutely awful. He had been a perfectly normal child previously and ended up horribly damaged until his very sad death. Maybe it's an extreme example but I would do anything not to see another child so awfully hurt.

[KathyMCMLXXII]

And of course, many children in the UK today are not well-nourished, in spite of the fact that we are a wealthy country and could afford for them to be.

[edam]

My mother and aunt insist that as long as the child was well-nursed, measles was something you recovered from with no lasting effects. But they may just have never come across any children they knew who were left deaf or blind, of course.

[pooka]

My perspective on measles is that even though my children are healthy and well-nourished I wouldn't want to risk the "not uncommon" complications.
Secondly, I know several people who have children who cannot have the vaccination (either single or MMR) and I wouldn't want then (since they have suppressed immunity) to get measles.
I went for the MMR, with some trepidation. But if I hadn't, they would have had the single jabs.
I would have been pretty cross if mine got measles before they were able to have the vaccine as well.

[harpsichordcarrier]

a member of my family died from measles after some very nasty complications, so it has always been a feared illness in my family. my mother's generation (in their seventies) ime are not in the least blase about measles, and generally know of instances of death and disability in their acquaintance/town.

(I am personally more afraid of German measles, but again that is to do with personal experience)