Reduced MMR Equals More Measles

Reduced uptake of the MMR vaccine, fueled no doubt by anti-vaccine propaganda, has resulted in a recent significant increase in Measles in the UK as shown by the graph on the right.  And despite what the anti-vaccine twits will tell you, Measles can be a very serious disease.  According to the CDC:

As many as one out of 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, and about one child in every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis. (This is an inflammation of the brain that can lead to convulsions, and can leave your child deaf or mentally retarded.) For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.

And that last statistic is sadly confirmed in the BBC article:

So far this year, 150 children have been admitted to hospital with complications and one child has died.

One child died.  Compare that with the slight risk of an allergic reaction to the vaccine.  And yet, the BBC reports that only 75% of children in the UK have had both doses of the MMR vaccine, at 12 to 15 months and at four to six years, as recommended.  This reduced uptake of MMR is almost certainly the reason for the current increase in the disease.

That is the result, so far, of the pseudo-scientific scare stories put out by the anti-vaccination loons.  If the uptake of the vaccine does not increase, there will be more deaths.

Hat tip to Jimmy Blue for the story.

Comments

[Infophile]

So is it fair to call the Mercury Militia killers now?

[Jimmy_Blue]

Why not, they've called us worse with absolutely no justification other than their twisted and deliberate misunderstanding of science and medicine and we now see that their views, and their actions, result in the deaths of children.

And it is only going to get worse. It's easier to promote nonsense about something the average person doesn't necessarily completly understand than it is to explain the workings of the immune system, vaccinces and the fact that we do not necessarily know where something like autism develops from.

Antivaxxers are scum and their views lead to the deaths of people. It's that simple.

[Kristjan Wager]

There has also been a large measles outbreak in Gibraltar, where approximately 1% of the population caught it.

[TechSkeptic]

Hmm...

but the vaccine ran out twice because of shortages in Britain

hmmm.. now I am confused. Was the reason that there is an outbreak due to people being stupid and not vaccinating or was it because they ran out of vaccine more than once? The first article cited by Skeptico says nothing about shortages.

Here in the US last year (hmm...or was it the year before) we had an uptick in flu cases because of low availability of flu vaccine.

[George]

"fueled no doubt by anti-vaccine propaganda"

Is this a belief, an opinion or a cited fact?

[The Perky Skeptic]

George, take a gander at Ben Goldacre's website, Bad Science. He has reported extensively on the British press coverage of the anti-MMR hysteria and how it affected vaccination rates. His articles corroborate what Skeptico says about antivaccination propaganda fueling this precipitous drop in herd immunity. This one is a good place to start. From Dr. Ben:

"Through reporting as shamelessly biased as this, British journalists have done their job extremely well. People make health decisions based on what they read in the newspapers, and MMR uptake has plummeted from 92% to 73%: there can be no doubt that the appalling state of health reporting is now a serious public health issue. We have already seen a mumps epidemic in 2005, and measles cases are at their highest levels for a decade."

[Jimmy_Blue]

Techskeptic:

Not sure where your quote comes from, but the article is clear that this is not due to a recent shortage of the MMR vaccine:

Experts say measles is spreading more easily because of low uptake of the MMR vaccine over the past decade. [my emphasis]

MMR is a combined vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella, three common infectious diseases of childhood.

It was introduced in the UK in 1988 to replace single vaccines for each disease.

But there are growing number of children who are unprotected - about one in four have not had both MMR doses.

It is estimated this could result in between 30,000 and 100,000 cases of measles in England alone.

Why have MMR vaccination rates declined?

In 1998, a study published in the respected journal The Lancet raised the possibility that the jab may be linked to autism and bowel disease.

The paper and the media furore that followed it prompted many parents to decide against having their children vaccinated with the three-in-one jab.[my emphasis]

George:

It appears to be fact.

[George]

Noted, thank you. Objection withdrawn.