MMR: The risks of not vaccinating your childSo, what happens if you decide to avoid the MMR issue by not vaccinating your child at all. Find out what the experts have to say about the risks of exposing your child to measles, mumps and rubella.
Already, the effects of low MMR take-up are being felt in some communities and it could get worse. Joanne White, of the Public Health Laboratory Services (PHLS) immunisation division says, "If vaccine uptake does not increase, we would expect to see outbreaks of infections when these children reach school age, when they start mixing and infections have the opportunity to spread." The risks: Babies under one are particularly at risk if immunity goes down in the population overall. Even without complications, most people have forgotten how horrible measles can be. "It's a debilitating, miserable disease," says south London GP Claire Girada, who is very strongly pro-vaccination. "A child will be bedridden for at least four to five days with a very high temperature, school-age children can expect to be off school for at least 10 days. A significant number of children do suffer complications, including deafness and a large minority are left with chest problems. And while it's rare, measles can cause brain damage. Mumps can have similar complications to measles but it also carries an extra risk for boys in the form of orchitis which can lead to sterility.Rubella is a mild illness in children but can have devastating effects on an unborn child if a mother catches it in early pregnancy. This is why it is important for the whole community to be immunised to reduce the risk of this happpening." There is other evidence that low uptake has led to complications and even death:
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