A chilling reminder (prepare for a rant)

Yesterday I met a five year old boy at work with complicated measles. He had pneumonia which in itself is not uncommon. He had been brought into hospital by his grandmother with a fairly classical history of fever, dry cough, and a rash that started on his forehead and behind his ears and spread down onto his trunk. Everyone here knows these symptoms as measles is endemic. I suspect most people at home of my grandparents generation also know these symptoms, as measles was endemic in the developed world until the start of vaccination in the late 60’s and early 70’s, but I wonder how many of today’s parents are so aware.

I have met many sets of parents in the UK who have chosen not to have their children vaccinated. All supposedly informed decisions. When I ask why, they give me a variety of reasons from concerns about Autism (which, for the record is now shown not to be in any way linked to MMR vaccine as was postulated) to my favourite “if you look after your children properly they don’t require vaccination”. I kid you not. Yes folks, the great news is measles respects good parenting!! On days like today I wish I could bring every one of these sets of parents here to Africa. The people here would love to have the health care system available to us in the UK. Most children are unvaccinated here but it’s because their parents don’t have the time, money or knowledge to access vaccination rather than a miss guided idea about potential harm. Consequently I have seen illnesses I have never seen in the UK such as tetanus. I am not saying all vaccines are completely without risk – there are side effects to many of them, but the risks are far outweighed by the benefits.

My 5 year old boy was lucky – he has recovered and was discharged home today. However his family are still missing two members. His mother and older brother both died two weeks ago, on the same day, of the same illness that he had. Measles is a killer, and not just in Africa. So if any of my friends who have recently had their own children happen to be reading this my plea to you is to make sure they are vaccinated (not that I think you wouldn’t for a moment) because we are lucky that we can’t all immediately diagnose measles, and I don’t want that to change.