100 years ago, measles closed a Harringay school...and in 2009 we are facing another epidemic

Just over 100 years ago, a short piece appeared in the London paper, the Pall Mall Gazette about Harringay.

The part that chills me is the last line beginning The deaths...

Measles is not and never was a 'natural' childhood illness, measles can kill your child. It can leave them brain damaged. It can lead to pneumonia, hepatitis, corneal scarring and encephalitis. Unbelievably 100 years later, it is again deemed to be at epidemic proportions in this country. You wouldn't think that anyone could bear to see their baby on a ventilator or worse because they believe some very bad science over all the evidence to the contrary?

Yet this week a leaflet came though my door asking me to vaccinate my children with the MMR jab. Haringey PCTs are having to urge people to get the jab for their kids as more and more cases of measles are being diagnosed. A question formed. Why are these people playing Russian roulette with their children's health?

Could it be that, bacause of the success of past vaccination programmes and because they have not seen these diseases (I am old enough to have had them, they are truly unpleasant and I would hate to have my children suffer them, but then I am an 'old' parent of young children) parents have started to truly believe the nonsense that they are no more harmful than a dose of chickenpox, I can barely believe my ears when I hear of parents holding measles parties, spouting nonsense like I heard from a parent on the R4 Today programme, that it strengthens a child's immune system!

Worse still, a conversation with my local practice nurse revealed that some parents are so confused they are refusing ALL vaccination, including for diseases like diptheria and polio. I was appalled.

Look, the doctors involved in the MMR scare falsified data and their findings have never been replicated in the many studies that have tried to prove their theory. Andrew Wakefield sowed a seed of doubt in the minds of parents who had either never known or did not remember the seriousness of conditions like measles and rubella and his actions are now resulting in an alarming rise in the number of measles cases. He has a lot to answer for but I doubt he ever will, safely away from the harm he has caused, in American private practice.

Its simple. The MMR jab is safe, measles could kill or damage your child. Both of mine were done, no question. Just vaccinate your children.