90's measles epidemic, and other things

[Guest guest]

<<Can someone tell me about the 1990's measles epidemic??>>

Just after I left college, early '90s, there was a major measles outbreak at Michigan State University. What numbers were involved, I don't know, but I remember it shut down parts of the campus, and was all over the newspapers. I had never heard of anyone getting measles before that. At the time students were told to get a booster of the MMR, as the series of shots we were given as children were not sufficient.

After that I believe that students were told they had to have that shot series finished before enrolling, and I am not aware if this policy is still in place, as today's college students would have already had the extra shot as a child. Does anyone else remember first hand this episode?

<<Some parents might claim a philosophical exemption "because it's just

easier than taking their child and getting them vaccinated," he said. (Bergen Record, Sunday, November 12, 2000, NJ.)>>

Yeah, and those of us who homeschool do it because we are really truants who are too lazy to get out of bed and take our children to school. I have heard that one too. Pluh-ease! What are we, just lazy? I bet a parent who vaccinates doesn't put the long hours into that decision that we put into not vaccinating. I know I didn't when I still vaccinated. Who is really lazy, complacent, and taking the "easy route"?

<<There is evidence of clustering in New Jersey. In conservative Sussex

County and in neighboring County, the number of kindergartners

exempted from immunizations in 1997-98 was more than twice the 0.06 percent

state average. Passaic County's rate was equal to the state average, and

Bergen's was slightly below.>>

So where are the stats about how much greater the incidence of these diseases are in this community?

<<Translated: if one is unable to get single shots spaced far enough apart to identify which created injury, then, gee, it's just one of those mysteries "we may never be able to explain" when the triple whammy fells the child. >>

Yikes Barbara! That is so scary but true. I have never thought of it that way.

And...regarding scary stuff about the Rubella vaccine...it just kills me that I got an MMR when I think I was still breastfeeding my daughter. No one even bothered to check that out. I remember it was when she got one of her series of shots, probably the first one, as I had been told while pregnant that I was not immune to Rubella. And I had had all of my shots. Yikes!

M. in Michigan