"I got the measles vaccine and I still got THREE strains of measles"

[TZ]

Ugh. Has anyone ever heard of anyone getting measles more than once? This utter tripe was on a pro-vaccination thread on my FB wall. Do all woo woos think they can just make up scientific impossibilities now? Why don't they just claim that a vaccine made them lose their connection with the gravity of earth. I got it, the measles vaccine gave them Polio!!! :grr:

[laconicsax]

1. The entire anti-vax movement is based on scientific impossibilities.

For example, a preservative that isn't used causes a genetic condition.

[TZ]

2. Oh sure.

But it constantly amazes me how people can state AS FACTS stuff I LEARNED IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (ie childhood diseases like measles mumps and chicken pox can only be had once( excluding of course shingles which is basically different). I guess cause I grew up in a highly educated area, when I encounter such blatant ignorance it continues to astonish me. Its like people stating the sky is green and grass is blue, just jaw dropping.

[Rozlee]

12. It's like the aborted fetuses in all vaccines tripe.

Only three aborted fetuses (well, technically, two) were ever used in making vaccines. The Rubella, Hep A, chicken pox, rabies vaccine are among them and cell lines from those fetuses are still being used today after over half a century. But, I hear fundies yelling all the time that abortionists are killing babies to sell them to make vaccines. Even the catholic church (don't get me started on that bunch) approves the use of those vaccines and urges people to get vaccinated. But, they'll wail like Banshees about the sweet, darling unborn that are being ground up into paste to be sold to pharmaceuticals for millions of dollars at abortion mills.

[laconicsax]

13. That's a common misconception.

The paste used by pharmaceutical companies isn't made at the abortion mill. They receive the precursor components from centralized distributors and make the paste at the vaccine mill.

[SheilaT]

3. There are plenty of cases of

people getting measles more than once. I don't know if there are different types out there, but not everyone gets it only once. I don't know if the vaccine protects against all types.

Chicken pox is another one that I suspect exists in several different types, just because of the great variance in severity back when it was a common childhood disease.

[TZ]

5. Uh no not at all

Chicken Pox does not "exist in several different types" Its Varizella Zoster Virus (VZV) and like ALL viri once infected, it never leaves your tissues entirely. SHINGLES is the adult reactivation of this virus.
I suspect your "getting measles more than once" is people having the virus reactivate or never having completely leaving the bloodstream.
As for variance in severity, that has to do with the individuals immune system. For instance, I have a much higher natural immunity to small pox than most..I know this because I have never gotten a blister from my MULTIPLE vaccinations.
AFAIK, the only infectious disease that you can truly get over and over again with no immunological memory of it can be "remembered" is malaria (and I worked on malaria so I know this for sure).
I think you need to brush up on your virology and immunology you seem to not have a good grasp of the topics.
But again, what do I know, I've only worked as a biologist in immunology/vaccinology/infectious disease/malarial infections for 14 years now.
I think you are confusing flu virus where different strains cause lack of efficacy in some vaccines (ie different strains need different vaccines). Not all viri behave alike. While there are multiple strains of measles viri, they are closely related enough that the vaccine does not need to contain all the different strains to protect, especially since its a live attenuated viri in the vaccine, considered the most potent type of vaccine.
Oh btw:
http://www.vaccineinformation.org/measles/qandadis.asp
No you cannot get measles more than once. Whether you can get Rubella after having measles is a different question

[trotsky]

7. Perhaps she is referring to people getting measles in their past lives. n/t

[Deep13]

16. That MUST be it!

There's no other reasonable explanation.

[SheilaT]

8. I am definitely not confusing flu with

measles.

I should say I have a hypothesis about measles existing in several types. Which is simply not a very good hypothesis, apparently.

Slightly off topic, but still related, my older son got Fifth Disease when he was about 18 months old. I don't know anyone else who has gotten it, although apparently it can be so mild that most people don't realize when they get it. He did have a classic case of it.

I'm currently reading the book Pox, An American History by Michael Willrich, about the last major smallpox epidemic in this country from `1897-1902 approximately. Fascinating.

[TZ]

10. You missed my point entirely

Yes there are different strains of measles viri most viri do come in different strains. However the part of the virus that our immune system reacts to DOES NOT VARY between the strains of viri so it ultimately doesn't matter if you are exposed to either strain A,B, or C. I'm not a virologist so I don't know the specific loci that the antibodies trigger on, but our immune systems are rather good at recognizing most viri even if they have slightly different molecular structures. This is what makes HIV so dangerous..unlike other viruses it can change its structure enough to fool our immune systems,also thats why people with a different strain from the standard infection can have a lot of trouble...the drugs are very specific to the main strain.

[SheilaT]

11. No, I didn't miss your point.

I have long ago concluded that measles came in several different strains and that depending on which one you got in the first place, you could either be immune to all strains or still susceptible to others. I may be wrong about that, but my observation, and the people who seem quite clear that they have gotten measles more than once would tend to support that hypothesis. Or, for at least some people, getting measles once does not confer permanent immunity, as it is supposed to.

I do understand how flu mutates, and that depending on which strain you are exposed to and get sick from, you have a long-lasting immunity to most flu of that type for a very long time. Which is why I, who have already lived through at least two serious type A flu epidemics, the Asian flu in 1957, and the Hong Kong flu in 1968. I definitely did not get flu in 1968, I think I may have gotten it in 1957. I came down with flu three or four times in child and teenage hood, and I am not at all worried about getting flu again.

I have noticed that pretty much every time a vaccine is newly developed for some disease, surprise surprise, the immunity wears off and a booster is needed at some point down the road. This is usually discovered when the first generation who got the vaccine, suddenly start getting the disease several years later, because the immunity has worn off.

Heck, getting and recovering from smallpox results in life long immunity, unlike the vaccine, which wears off after time. I'm not advocating in this case it's better to get the smallpox, because the more virulent type is terrible almost beyond words, but at the end of the 19th century a new, milder type suddenly developed, which had a remarkably low death rate, maybe one to two percent, and almost never resulted in scarring. Those who got the mild version were now immune to the more virulent one. Since then, we've wiped smallpox out completely in the natural environment.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SheilaT]

18. How nice that you know everything

there is to know about vaccines.

[LeftishBrit]

19. Well, it is a large part of her job to know about them!

[Silent3]

22. "I have long ago concluded..."

What exactly are your qualifications to conclude anything about "different strains" of any disease? You really think your laboratory-free powers of observation applied without any semblance of reasonable experimental protocol are oh-so powerful and reliable?

[LeftishBrit]

4. Is there more than one strain of measles?

I suppose if you count measles and German measles as different strains of 'measles' (they aren't of course), it could happen twice - but hardly three times.

You can get measles twice if the first time was when you were too young to develop proper immunity. My dad got it twice, because the first time he was only 6 months old. That is why they don't give the MMR in the first year: because it might not *work* well, not because it will kill you or send you into spontaneous combustion (another argument I had once).

[TZ]

6. Yeah, I was just wondering if some poor unfortunate soul

has ever gotten Rubella and measles both. I'm pretty sure if you've been vaccinated thats not happening.
There are multiple strains but as mentioned above unlike influenza (thats why the flu is so dangerous) different strains do not fool our immune system. You get immunity to all even if not exposed initially to all.

[SheilaT]

9. Prior to the MMR vaccination

a large number -- probably the majority -- of people in this country got measles, mumps, rubella (then more commonly called German measles), and chicken pox. I'm 62 and I had all of those. A couple of times in the last twenty years, when starting a new job I'm asked to prove I've been vaccinated against some of those. I always laugh, and remind them of my age.

[csziggy]

21. Yeah, I remember when both English measles and German measles

Went around in my home town. My aunt, who was pretty much constantly pregnant, locked herself up and reduced her social contacts to minimum to prevent exposure to the German measles. The effects on a fetus are not pleasant. Come to think about it, one of her miscarriages could have been caused by a case of rubella.

I'm a couple of years younger than you and I had one of the measles (not sure which one and Mom no longer remembers), mumps, chicken pox, AND whooping cough. Since chicken pox predisposes people to getting shingles, I am looking forward to that delightful experience.

[Deep13]

17. I've never had measles, so I've never bothered to find out.

Never had diptheria, rubella, tetnus, polio, smallpox, pneumonia or whooping cough either. I DID have some injections and a cup of liquid in the 1960s and '70s.

[Deep13]

15. A tetnus shot gave me kuru.

Just sayin'.

[Warpy]

20. It's rubbish now

but the initial MMR was not effective (meaning we all had to get revaccinated in nursing school) and if the person in question never got any booster shots, of course she got measles.

I've had measles and several MMR vaccinations and still don't have a positive antibody titer, so there's a remote possibility someone else out there might share the problem and get a disease after the vaccination for it. I've been exposed to measles, though, and haven't developed the disease. Good thing, measles encephalitis damned near killed me when I was six.

My best guess is that the idiot is allergic to something and has had hives three times. It's not like a fool like that would get medical attention.