Mumps, measles and rubella

[Physiotherapist]

You can't get shingles unless you have had chicken pox. Shingles is just a re-emergence of the Varicella zoster chicken pox virus. This normally happens in older people when their immune system fails to control the virus.

MMR does not immunise you against chicken pox, you need the Varciella vaccine to do that, I believe that is included with MMR now and called MMRV.

Getting infected with Rubella is only consequential for the foetus of pregnant women. We all get the vaccine to provide herd immunity to the unborn child.

ETA: One way to prevent shingles is to be in close contact with a child with chicken pox. You may get infected again and this will serve to boost your T cell immunity which will help control the Varicella virus. Provided of course that you have had chicken pox before and have some immunity.

Yes, I am aware of this.

I was never vaccinated against rubella and actually contracted it as a teenager. I still have rubella antibodies in my blood to this day.

 

[borealys]

Getting infected with Rubella is only consequential for the foetus of pregnant women. We all get the vaccine to provide herd immunity to the unborn child.

I have had three MMR shots in my life. Had to get a booster when I started grad school (was going to be working with sick people and children). The rubella part didn't take, though. When I started working in a hospital, they made me get antibody testing for everything, regardless of whether I could prove I'd had the vaccine. Turned out, nope, no rubella antibodies. No one at the hospital or my local clinic could locate a straight rubella shot for me, so after much discussion, the nurse decided to give me a third MMR. Haven't had a blood test done since then, but I plan to before having kids. Just in case it *still* didn't take.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

If you are immune to either measles, mumps or rubella, you will also be immune to the vaccine strain. So it won't do anything. And if you are not immune, then you needed the vaccine.

The majority of the time we give a second measles dose, it is to decrease the percentage of vacine failures rather than to "boost" one's immunity. People who received the killed vaccine, however, given from 1963 until 1968, do need to be revaccinated with the live vaccine since the killed vaccine would need boosters. Almost all persons born prior to 1957 have had measles. But we have found a rare person in that age group who did not have serological evidence of immunity. The general rule is however, if you were born in 1956 or earlier, you don't need to worry. If you have had 2 doses of MMR after you were 12 months old or older, you are vaccinated. If you have not had those 2 doses or a physician diagnosed case of measles or laboratory (blood test) evidence of immunity, you need one or two MMR doses.

Rubella is a different story. If you are pregnant or going to work with pregnant women, we test you for immunity. Some doctors and employers might use 2 doses of MMR as sufficient but most OB doctors just test pregnant women. And even women who were immune on past tests get a new rubella vaccine after delivering their baby. I think anyone planning a pregnancy might want to get testeed for rubella immunity.

There has been a recent epidemic of mumps in the US among a group of mostly under vaccinated Jews exposed within their religious community. If I recall, no cases occurred among people who had had two doses of MMR. But there is somne concern about a vaccine resistent strain emerging.

Update: Mumps Outbreak --- New York and New Jersey, June 2009--January 2010

State and local health departments, in collaboration with CDC, continue to investigate a mumps outbreak that began in New York in June 2009 (1). The index case occurred in a boy aged 11 years who had returned on June 17 from a trip to the United Kingdom, where approximately 7,400 reports of laboratory-confirmed mumps were received by the Health Protection Agency in 2009.* He then attended a New York summer camp for tradition-observant Jewish boys, where he became symptomatic on June 28. Subsequently, other camp attendees and a staff member were reported to have mumps, and transmission continued in multiple locations when the camp attendees returned home. As of January 29, 2010, a total of 1,521 cases had been reported, with onset dates from June 28, 2009, through January 29, 2010, a substantial increase from the 179 cases reported as of October 30, 2009 (1). The outbreak has remained confined primarily to the tradition-observant Jewish community, with <3% of cases occurring among persons outside the community. The largest percentage of cases (61%) has occurred among persons aged 7--18 years, and 76% of the patients are male. Among the patients for whom vaccination status was reported, 88% had received at least 1 dose of mumps-containing vaccine, and 75% had received 2 doses. This is the largest mumps outbreak that has occurred in the United States since 2006 (2). Although mumps vaccination alone was not sufficient to prevent this outbreak, maintaining high measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination coverage remains the most effective way to prevent outbreaks and limit their size when they occur.