Europe, especially France, hit by measles outbreak (vaccinations down)

Associated Press ^ | April 21, 2011 | JOHN HEILPRIN

[decimon]

GENEVA – Europe, especially France, has been hit by a major outbreak of measles, which the U.N. health agency is blaming on the failure to vaccinate all children.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that France had 4,937 reported cases of measles between January and March — compared with 5,090 cases during all of 2010. In all, more than 6,500 cases have been reported in 33 European nations.

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To prevent measles outbreaks, officials need to vaccinate about 90 percent of the population. But vaccination rates across Europe have been patchy in recent years and have never fully recovered from a discredited 1998 British study linking the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella to autism. Parents abandoned the vaccine in droves and vaccination rates for parts of the U.K. dropped to about 50 percent.

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[blueplum]

well, has the autism rate gone down in Europe?
no?
must not have been the vaccines then

[nopardons]

Try reading what I post more carefully.

Having a disease, that's having a disease, will almost always confer future immunity on a person. This is a well known fact. Having had mumps, measles, and chickenpox, in most cases, makes one immune to contracting these diseases in the future. Being vaccinated against them does the same thing, WITHOUT having to actually have the debilitating, sometimes fatal disease.

Do you even know how the smallpox vaccination came about? It was noticed, by Jenner, that milkmaids never got smallpox. being constantly around cows, they would contract cowpox, which protected them. Hence he developed the smallpox vaccine, which has saved millions of people from death and/or disfiguration.

You're hijacking this thread, attempting to promulgate your own uneducated biases and ignoring hard cold known facts, out of hand. That isn't doing this thread, nor you, any good.

I have just one question for you................would you rather watch your child get a shot, or be seriously stricken with a horrendous disease, which could deform, blind, or kill them?

[nopardons]

It has been proven, over and over and over again that vaccines prevent a person from GETTING the disease.

[happyhomemaker]

I had a young child and you better believe that vaccinations were part of what I did FOR said child, who never went to daycare. Said now adult child of mine, has had my grandchild vaccinated, so don't tell me what I do or do not know about.

So you get points in parenting for following the government issued timeline for vaccinations. That is your choice. I am thankful that in American I can make the decisions to not follow the same timeline because I don't think it is "best" for my children based on discussions with professionals in the field of medicine and pharmacology. I am still interested in how many children had poor outcomes(blindness) from this latest measles outbreak.

[happyhomemaker]

You're hijacking this thread, attempting to promulgate your own uneducated biases and ignoring hard cold known facts, out of hand. That isn't doing this thread, nor you, any good. I have just one question for you................would you rather watch your child get a shot, or be seriously stricken with a horrendous disease, which could deform, blind, or kill them?

Oh the drama LOL!! Usually it is liberals that use the "fear' argument to try to win their point. I am confident in my decision and your fear mongering has not won me over but I give you a C for effort. If we are discussing this article I would still like to know how many of the people afflicted with measles actually had a poor outcome such as blindness.

[nopardons]

No, I get points for being a GREAT PARENT, protecting my progeny from getting terrible diseases, which could have killed, crippled, or blinded. The government had less than nothing to do with it.

Did you get your children vaccinated against smallpox? If not, how did you get them into school?

Having many doctors in my family, knowing family stories about what now no longer "normal" childhood diseases were like, as well as remembering what it was like to have measles, mumps, and the Asian Flu, I was/am armed with more than enough knowledge about vaccinations and diseases.

Blindness, from a serious measles attack, is much rarer now, than it once was, because people know that light, especially sunlight must be kept away from the patient, at all cost. Of course, since few people get measles now, I wonder how many people even know that and have blackout shades.

[nopardons]

The poster of the thread said up at the beginning, that the anti-vaccination people shouldn't try to take over the thread and yes, I agree, which is why I posted it to you, on my own.

"FEAR"? I don't "fear" you nor your benighted position. Spew on, the more you post, the more irrational you've become.

Well, since you want to know how many of those who contracted measles, in Europe, went blind or were visually impaired, go do some research and/or write to the WOT, or the health ministries. It isn't mentioned in the article, so none of us can quench your curiosity. But why aren't you worried about how many died? Death is also a possibility....especially for adults who contract measles.

[happyhomemaker]

Well, since you want to know how many of those who contracted measles, in Europe, went blind or were visually impaired, go do some research and/or write to the WOT, or the health ministries. It isn't mentioned in the article, so none of us can quench your curiosity. But why aren't you worried about how many died? Death is also a possibility....especially for adults who contract measles.

Gosh you seem really married to this thread. We are just a family that exercised our right to choose what vaccinations our children are shot up with. I had to laugh when you questioned how I got my children into "school" without the government OK. Believe it or not but parents in America are still "allowed" to educated their children at home without "papers" and the schools still accept children without papers OKed by parents. Oh and my oldest just got her drivers license...believe me, I am much more concerned with auto accidents than measle blindness syndrome

[Turbopilot]

Wait - are you claiming that vaccines prevent disease?

Well, me and 200 years of medical science. I've heard of people making the (utterly and completely disproven) claim that vaccines cause autism, but I've never heard anyone try to claim that vaccines don't vaccinate. That's why I was trying to understand if you were making such a novel claim.

[Cheesehead in Texas]

nopardons you are so right. It may be very fashionable (not to mention shockingly selfish and colossally ignorant) to sit around Beverly Hills insisting on not vaccinating your children but these diseases are very real in other parts of the world and globalization brings them much closer to home.

6 months ago there was a major polio outbreak in Republic of Congo and Angola, having approximately 20% mortality rate. I occasionally travel there for my job. We were required to get re-vaccinated and warned to have all of our family members re-vaccinated to help prevent transmission from ourselves and colleagues travelling from ROC and Angola. I can’t even enter Angola without proof of vaccination. I am proud to say the company I work for either directly vaccinated or provided funding and equipment for vaccinating 1.2 million people in ROC and Angola in the midst of this devastating outbreak. http://www.polioeradication.org/tabid/167/iid/80/Default.aspx

[nopardons]

There's no such thing as "measles blindness syndrome", nor is there a "measles death syndrome"; both are possible due to one having that disease.

You're the one who is "really married to this thread.",as well as to your own peculiar take on things.

Are your children home schooled? If so, then my question was not answered correctly by you.

Laugh your head off, but also hope and pray that none of your children contract the diseases you have refused to protect them from, at their present ages, or later in life.

[nopardons]

You and your company are doing something truly wonderful and should be applauded !

It's criminal that some parents feel that it is their right and duty to not do whatever it takes to protect their children from deadly diseases. This whole "DON'T VACCINATE" garbage became a popular delusion, foisted upon the gullible, only a couple of decades ago. Some Hollywierdo parents were looking for causes to blame their children's autism on and came up with vaccinations. Since autism can strike anyone, has been around for probably as long as mankind has existed, but absolutely long vaccinations were invented, we are soon to find that epidemics of long absent diseases are going to hit right here, in America, as well.

[webstersII]

“That is how polio and small pox were eradicated.”

You overstate the case for polio (I’m not sure about smallpox).

Cases of polio were in decline before the vaccine was developed.

[webstersII]

“I am thankful that in American I can make the decisions to not follow the same timeline”

That’s still true now, but may not be anymore in the future.

The so-called conservatives on FR who are incredibly staunch believers in small gov’t and personal freedom think the populace should be forced to vaccinate whenever and with whatever the gov’t says.

Freedom is hard to accept. That’s why so few are really in favor of it, even on FR.