Interesting article about measles vaccine

[MommatoGray]

http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/life/article/1001915--quebec-measles-outbreak-raises-questions--page1

There are three pages. Hmm....

[kathymuggle]

Most of the article was somewhat expected - but I did find this nugget which may be interesting to those considering delaying vaccines:

But the study did note that teens in the school who got their first dose of measles vaccine at 15 months of age were more than three times less likely to get measles in the outbreak than teens who got their first shot at 12 months.

I also saw this (same article):

vaccine can't be given earlier, because of a phenomenon that helps babies survive infancy. Children are born without a fully developed immune system — it starts to build as babies become exposed to a variety of disease threats over their first few years.

In pregnancy and after birth, through breastfeeding, babies acquire antibodies from their mothers that tide them over until they can make their own. But that means if they are given the measles vaccine — which is made from weakened live viruses — too early, their mothers' antibodies will kill the vaccine viruses, preventing protection from being induced.

It does make one question the schedule (and not just of measles - does the same concern apply to other vaccines?....)

Edited by kathymuggle - 10/29/11 at 6:01am

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by kathymuggle 

In pregnancy and after birth, through breastfeeding, babies acquire antibodies from their mothers that tide them over until they can make their own. But that means if they are given the measles vaccine — which is made from weakened live viruses — too early, their mothers' antibodies will kill the vaccine viruses, preventing protection from being induced.

It does make one question the schedule (and not just of measles - does the same concern apply to other vaccines?....)

Have you read Hilary Butler's three part series on this subject?

Vaccines and neonatal immune development

How a Baby fights infection and develops the immune system

Can vaccines become cranial and immunological cluster bombs?

[lovebeingamomma]

very interesting!  Wish I had hours to spare to read up on all this :)

[BeckyBird]

MommatoGray, thanks for the article. Maybe this would help parents delay vaccines until after 6 months.

Mirzam, thanks for Hilary's articles. I love her work!

Here's a great quote from Hilary, that is so simple and true:

"It's no longer acceptable to tell a parent, "The vaccine didn't do this.  We don't know what did, but WE KNOW a vaccine didn't do this." because they "know" nothing of the sort."