Measles – don’t let your child catch it

Posted on Updated on by Ben MoorhouseCategories:Practice Updates

Measles is in the news again, with serious outbreaks in Wales and England and the number of children catching measles is rising.

Measles can be a very serious disease, leading to ear and chest infections, fits, diarrhoea, and damage to the brain; measles can kill.

Your child is at risk of measles if he or she hasn’t had the MMR vaccination; two doses of MMR vaccine are needed to get the best protection.

If your child is due to have had two doses of MMR but has not yet received them, no matter what age they are, you should contact your GP to get them vaccinated as soon as possible.

If you can’t remember if your child has had any, one or two doses of MMR vaccine, check his or her personal child health record (the Red Book). If this doesn’t help, speak to your GP.

Measles is a highly infectious disease, spreading quickly from person to person, especially in schools. A child with measles will infect almost all unprotected children they have contact with. Since the end of 2017 there has been an increase in measles globally which has affected the UK. This has resulted in some spread into wider communities, in particular in under vaccinated groups.

The best times are between 12 and 13 months of age and again at three years and four months, with one dose on each occasion. But, if your child wasn’t vaccinated then, they can be vaccinated at any age with two doses one month apart.

Your child may get the symptoms of measles, mumps and rubella for up to six weeks after the vaccination but in a very much milder form. This proves that the vaccine is working and your child is building up resistance to future contact with the viruses that cause the three diseases. Not all children show these symptoms but that doesn’t mean the vaccine isn’t working.

As with many diseases, once you have had measles, you don’t catch it again because you have built up a natural resistance to it. So, if you’ve had measles two doses of MMR vaccine you do not need to get vaccinated now.