We’re flying to Portland in April, and my husband has become anxious about the measles outbreak there. He was born in 1951, and does not remember ever having been vaccinated for anything. It’s very likely that he wasn’t, because his mom was a bit of a nut who didn’t trust doctors.
I was born in 1956. I remember getting vaccinations when I was maybe eight or nine years old, but I don’t remember what they were. I also remember being very sick with something that worried my mom enough that she moved my bed into the living room for several days so she could keep an constant eye on me. Was it measles? I don’t remember.
My husband wants to get vaccinated for measles before our trip. I tried looking up advice on WebMD about adult measles vaccination, and the advice there is confusing. It says “Generally, adults born before 1957 are considered immune to measles and mumps”. Why is that? Mr. brown doesn’t remember ever having measles or anything very serious when he was a child.
My suspicion is that the advice WebMD is giving is that, if someone is that old, that person was undoubtedly, repeatedly exposed to those diseases during childhood. Those people either came down with the diseases (and got better), or were resistant / immune to the diseases anyway. My understanding is that not everyone who’s exposed to diseases like those comes down with the diseases (even without a vaccination) – some people’s immune systems are able to fight them off.
So, even if your husband never had measles, he probably was exposed to the virus during childhood, but wasn’t susceptible to it.
Having had measles myself (I was pretty sick for a couple of weeks), it’s safe to say that if teela’s husband had come down with measles, he’d remember it quite well.
While people born before '57 likely were exposed to measles (and most contracted it as it’s highly contagious), that doesn’t mean all can be considered immune (through luck and “natural” herd immunity, some may never have been exposed to the disease and remain susceptible). Furthermore, even adults who’ve had measles or been vaccinated against it could still potentially come down with it again (unlikely, but both vaccine-induced and natural antibodies are not guaranteed to last for a lifetime).
If I was going to travel to an area with an ongoing, widespread measles outbreak I’d think about getting revaccinated. Hopefully the PNW outbreak will be winding down by April, but you never know (cases are now cropping up in Hawaii due to exposure to PNW victims).
However, they recommend vaccinating higher-risk personnel anyway:
The 1957 birth date just indicates high statistical likelihood that if he was born in that era he was exposed as a child. If he’s not certain that he’s immune, personally I’d just go ahead and get the MMR vaccine. It’s very safe, and measles can be extremely serious if you do contract it as an adult.
I had an MMR titer test a few years ago when my doc & I weren’t sure whether I should get a booster (my last booster before I started college was undocumented and only fuzzily remembered by me)
It’s quick and easy and my insurance paid for it. I showed immunity to all 3 and didn’t need a booster.
After posting this, I started dialing around to pharmacies in my town to make sure they had this vaccine in stock so we can get it this Saturday.
Despite their websites stating that they vaccinate against MMR, Rite-Aid, Walgreens and one of the CVS’s each stated over the phone that they do not do this vaccine. Not that they were out of stock, they didn’t give out the vaccine period. Luckily, one of the CVS’s said that they did, but had none in stock and would order a box.
This is crazy. I thought this common vaccine would be widely available, but I thought wrong.
I imagine that the MMR vaccine is widely available at pediatric clinics, but that there has (up until now) been little demand for that vaccine for adults, which is why pharmacies don’t have it.
Born in 1957, and got measles from my kid when he was a small tyke-He had a bit of a rash, while I had a high fever, hallucinations and some permanent scarring on my upper arms.
Get the shot.
My husband’s co-worker says that his daughter took his granddaughter to a kids’ museum in Oregon, and the museum was telling people on the way out that they might have been exposed. The granddaughter is two months old and has yet to get her MMR vaccines, and must be isolated until an incubation period is over.
It sounds like there is no harm and no risk in getting the MMR vaccination as an adult if it is unclear if said adult was previously vaccinated or came down with the illness naturally as a child, is that what everyone is saying?
We probably need one of our resident docs to provide an opinion, but as always, it’s better to talk to one’s own doctor to get an answer.
Well, you can never say no risk of complication - the risks are described here:
But the remote risk of any severe complication from the MMR vaccine is much less than the danger of contracting one of the diseases, especially as an adult.
Ten years ago, during my immigration physical, I was given the whole suite of common childhood vaccines. It was the clinic’s SOP, cheaper and easier than trying to verify on paper who had received which shots and when.
About three years ago, I had titres taken for lots of vaccine-preventable illnesses prior to starting fertility treatment. Despite having contracted chicken pox as a child, and receiving the vaccine during the aforementioned physical, I had no antibodies to varicella. So I had to delay treatment until I’d had the series of shots and waited an additional month.
When I worked with animals, me and my colleagues were given the rabies pre-exposure vaccine. Every year, our antibody levels were checked to see if we needed a booster. Most of my colleagues were fine from a single shot, for years and years. Lucky old me had to get a booster every!single!year!
My point is, sometimes bodies react differently to vaccinations. The best way to tell if you’re immune to an illness is to request a titre from your doctor, and follow their advice.
I’m a nurse not a doctor.
Call your Primary Care Provider and ask for an order for a measles titer. The PCP should be able to do this without an office visit. Your local Public Health District also may be able to provide this service. Get the test done, any hospital can do this.
The lab titer will show whether your husband has immunity to measles, either from previous exposure or vaccination. If not, the Public Health District can certainly vaccinate him.
Many people I know have had MMR boosters as adults. I had an update before some international travel a number of years ago, but my PCP opines that I’m likely to have sufficient coverage even if I should venture to Washington.
It’s one of the most contagious diseases on earth: send a person with a case of it into a room full of 100 vaccinated kids, and 90 will get it. Therefore it’s not hard to imagine why they think people who were children pre-vaccine most likely got it.
*“If you’ve been vaccinated, can you still get measles?”
“Yes, people who have been vaccinated can get the measles, but there is only a small chance of this happening. About 3 percent of people who receive two doses of the measles vaccine will get measles if they come in contact with someone who has the virus, according to the CDC.”*
I’m 60 and definitely had the measles over 50 years ago and I live in Portland. Today I had a blood draw for my normal clotting factor check and had them order a measles titer while they were at it. If it comes up negative I’ll be getting that shot so fast your head will swim–as I said, I had it, I remember how much it sucked and I’m not gonna risk getting it again TYVM!
