MMR jab will stop measles epidemic which is at its worst for 18 years
What parents seem to have forgotten is that measles is potentially fatal and officials in Wales said it’s just a matter of time until a child dies
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This is what you get if you don’t vaccinate your children against measles with the MMR jab – a frightening epidemic of measles among unvaccinated children as we’ve been seeing in Wales for the past few weeks.
I’ve held off writing about this latest surge of measles because I’ve been beating the vaccination drum so long and so hard that I feel I’m banging my head against a brick wall.
But with 20 new cases of measles being reported to Public Health Wales every day it’s time to beat the drum again.
So scared are the health authorities about the rise in cases – 25% over the Easter weekend – that they’re setting up emergency, drop-in vaccination clinics in major Welsh cities.
In England and Wales, cases of measles are at their highest for 18 years.
But what parents seem to have forgotten is that measles is potentially fatal and PHW has said it’s just a matter of time until a child dies.
Measles also has a string of really nasty complications: encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), ear infections, which sometimes lead to deafness, kidney damage and lung infections, some with permanent damage like bronchiectasis.
Vaccination is our only protection. The MMR triple jab, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella, is our only defence.
This outbreak is the lingering after-effects of a fraudulent study linking the MMR jab to autism published in The Lancet 15 years ago.
It has since been discredited and The Lancet has erased it. And the doctor who did the study has been struck off the medical register.
At the time, however, alarm spread like wildfire and parents deserted the MMR jab in droves, leaving their children vulnerable.
It’s these children who are now most seriously affected by the measles outbreak in Wales. Those children who missed out and are now in their teens.
Parents can’t be blamed. At the time they were bombarded with negative stories about the jab by the media.
The South Wales Evening Post led a campaign against the MMR jab and Swansea is where the epidemic is worst. They weren’t the only ones.
Those misguided reports helped drive the vaccination rate to below 80% in children, and when levels get that low, an epidemic is just around the corner.
We need to reach a 95% vaccination rate to prevent this.
The MMR jab is one of the safest vaccinations on the planet. It has been given tens of millions of times. Don’t believe those scary stories you hear.
I implore parents to vaccinate their children, and have their first jab before they turn two. Let Wales be a lesson.