{"id":223074,"date":"2014-03-11T18:42:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T18:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/03\/11\/olivia-my-eldest-daughter-caught-measles-when\/"},"modified":"2014-03-11T18:42:20","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T18:42:20","slug":"olivia-my-eldest-daughter-caught-measles-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/03\/11\/olivia-my-eldest-daughter-caught-measles-when\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
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Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you feeling all right?\u201d I asked her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel all sleepy, \u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.<\/p>\n

The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her.<\/p>\n

That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.<\/p>\n

It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness.<\/p>\n

Believe me, it is. In my opinion parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk.<\/p>\n

In America, where measles immunisation is compulsory, measles like smallpox, has been virtually wiped out.<\/p>\n

Here in Britain, because so many parents refuse, either out of obstinacy or ignorance or fear, to allow their children to be immunised, we still have a hundred thousand cases of measles every year.<\/p>\n

Out of those, more than 10,000 will suffer side effects of one kind or another.<\/p>\n

At least 10,000 will develop ear or chest infections.<\/p>\n

About 20 will die.<\/p>\n

LET THAT SINK IN.<\/p>\n

Every year around 20 children will die in Britain from measles.<\/p>\n

So what about the risks that your children will run from being immunised?<\/p>\n

They are almost non-existent. Listen to this. In a district of around 300,000 people, there will be only one child every 250 years who will develop serious side effects from measles immunisation! That is about a million to one chance. I should think there would be more chance of your child choking to death on a chocolate bar than of becoming seriously ill from a measles immunisation.<\/p>\n

So what on earth are you worrying about?<\/p>\n

It really is almost a crime to allow your child to go unimmunised.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Roald Dahl, 1986<\/p>\n

(via brain-confetti<\/a>)<\/p>\n

TEAM VACCINE<\/p>\n

(via watchoutfordinosaurs<\/a>)<\/p>\n

NINETEEN EIGHTY SIX.<\/p>\n

roald dahl was calling out the anti-vaccination movement as self indulgent bullshit \/\/thirty god damn years ago\/\/.<\/p>\n

(via ultralaser<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Over 1,000 preventable deaths and 128,000 preventable illnesses since 2007 and counting<\/a><\/p>\n

And this is only in recent history. I can\u2019t imagine the numbers if we had data all the way back to 1986.<\/p>\n

(via autistiel<\/a>)<\/p>\n

And thanks to anti-vaxxers, measles is back<\/a> in the United States.<\/p>\n

(via thebicker<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her … <\/p>\n

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