From page 384 of the BNF:
Measles vaccine…should be offered to all children in the second year of life and may be expected to produce durable immunity.
VAN UK’S Comment: Now the DOH say single measles vaccine isn’t effective.
Administration of this vaccine to children may be associated with a mild measles-like syndrome and with a measles-like rash and pyrexia which come on about a week after the injection of the vaccine. Much less commonly, convulsions and rarely, encephalitis have been reported as being associated with measles vaccine.
Serious neurological complications following the vaccine are extremely rare, perhaps of the order of 1 in 87,000 vaccinees and probably about 12-20 times less common than such complications associated with natural infections of measles, but it is difficult to get exact figures because of variable criteria of what is diagnosed as a serious neurological condition.
VAN UK’S Comment: i.e. they don’t know since adverse reactions after the vaccine may not be diagnosed as such so they’re just guessing with their estimation of how much more serious measles is.
Subacute Sclerosing panencephalitis..may be associated with live measles vaccine at a rate of 0.5-1.0 case per million doses.
Unfortunately, measles vaccine is taken up by only 50% of those eligible. This is said to be due to the fact that SOME DOCTORS AND PARENTS DO NOT CONSIDER THAT MEASLES IS NOW A SERIOUS DISEASE.
VAN UK’S Comment: In 1985 many doctors and parents hadn’t yet been indoctrinated with the measles is deadly scare story
Warnings:
Children with a personal history of epilepsy or whose parents or siblings have a history of epilepsy, should be given measles vaccine only with an administration of immunoglobulin.
VAN UK’S Comment: Giving an injection of antibodies used to lessen severe adverse reactions, but was later stopped because doctors thought it would arouse suspicion of the vaccine.
Children with impaired immunity should not receive live vaccines.
If they have been exposed to measles infection, they should be given immunoglobulin (i.e. the vaccine is not necessary if they or anyone around them has had measles).
