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Mumps and Measles (and Whooping Cough)

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  • Mumps and Measles (and Whooping Cough)

    These old-fashioned illnesses are making a comeback. They almost went away for awhile, thanks to immunization campaigns, but, in recent years, some people have chosen not to immunize their children...and now, they've come back, mostly for this reason (but not all).

    Sometimes, the jab doesn't last a lifetime. I got whooping cough, last Christmas...I can tell you, it's no fun, I coughed for six weeks. I caught it because, at my age (almost 50), I'm not covered, any longer. Which is why I didn't get it, ten years ago, when my daughter caught it as a newborn. She caught it as a three week old, two weeks before the jabs were due to be given to her. It came as an unwelcome gift, from a kid who hadn't been immunized, because his Auntie had been, forty years before, and had had a bad result, and had become handicapped.

    Leilani could have died, even more so because our Doctor didn't know what was the matter with her, and just kept gving me cough syrup, and making me appointments to have her chest massaged. Finally, his wife pulled me aside, told me that he had NO idea, and told me to go to the hospital. The older Doctor at the hospital knew right away, what it was, and we got to stay for two weeks, til Leilani was better.

    As my own Doctor said, when it was all over..."Sorry, Susie, but we just don't see that anymore, I never saw a real case, during the time that I was in medical school." Gee, thanks, pal. Last Christmas I was able to listen to a case of whooping cough, in an older person, on the internet...and get my Doctor to listen, too...it took that much, to convince him, as he didn't realize that the immunization can wear off, after half a century.

    A friend of mine, Lisa Wiederholtd (Lanikai), died of measles, along with her unborn third baby, when she caught it. Measles can be deadly for pregnant women. Chickenpox can kill pregnant women and their unborn babies, too.

    I don't recall if mumps can kill...but they can make grown men sterile. And there certainly is a mumps epidemic going around, on the mainland.

    What I'm trying to say is...I realize that it's all the 'fashion' to not immunize your kids, but please reconsider. It is a risk...as that handicapped Auntie of forty years ago proves...but my daughter could've died for a forty-year-old mistake/accident, which doesn't make it any more justified to not get the jabs.
    http://thissmallfrenchtown.blogspot.com/
    http://thefrenchneighbor.blogspot.com/

  • #2
    Re: Mumps and Measles (and Whooping Cough)

    To be honest with you the State of Hawaii Department of Health been running ads on the TV and on the TheBus (and maybe on other mediums) to get kids vacinated before they can enter school. What I don't know is vacinated for what kind of diseases.

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    • #3
      Re: Mumps and Measles (and Whooping Cough)

      There was a story on NPR yesterday about a measles outbreak in Boston. Interesting enough to prompt me to look up more details. Fifteen cases, so far. Here's the Boston Public Health Commission's news page. Daily updates, even if only to report no new cases.

      Even people who were vaccinated may be susceptible (as some vaccines decades ago weren't as effective), and of course in any diverse metropolitan area you have many people from other countries and regions where vaccinations are uncommon. Plus those who shun vaccines on principle for any number of reasons.

      The Boston story is interesting mostly, to me, for seeing how government and health officials are responding and researching... that they narrowed its source down to one building, and one person, and are tracking links, sharing information, and strategizing prevention methods.

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      • #4
        Re: Mumps and Measles (and Whooping Cough)

        Originally posted by helen
        To be honest with you the State of Hawaii Department of Health been running ads on the TV and on the TheBus (and maybe on other mediums) to get kids vacinated before they can enter school. What I don't know is vacinated for what kind of diseases.
        From http://www.hawaii.gov/health/family-...on/index.html:

        The goal of the Hawaii Immunization Program is to prevent diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, hepatitis B, hemophilus influenza B, influenza, and pneumonia through immunizations.

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