The effects of childhood diseases and the MMR vaccine

MEASLES Almost one child in five is hospitalisedOne child in 16 gets pneumoniaOne child in 20 suffers from ear infections or…

MEASLESAlmost one child in five is hospitalisedOne child in 16 gets pneumoniaOne child in 20 suffers from ear infections or diarrhoeaOne child in 200 suffers febrile convulsionsOne child in 1,000 gets encephalitis (brain inflammation)One child in 2,500 diesFive children in 1,000,000 get SSPE (fatal brain damage which follows many years after apparent recovery)

MUMPS

One in four teenage or adult males develop painful swelling of the testicles and 50 per cent of these get some degree of testicular atrophy, although sterility is rare

Death from mumps occurs in as many as three in 10,000 cases

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Mumps is one of the main causes of acquired deafness in childhood, affecting one in 20,000 children

RUBELLA

One child in 3,000 gets thrombocytopenic purpura (a fall in the number of blood platelets): which may cause bleeding in stomach, brain or kidneys

One child in 5,000 gets encephalitis, which can cause brain damage and death

85 per cent of infants in mothers infected by rubella in the first trimester of pregnancy get congenital rubella syndrome (deafness, cataracts, heart defects, microcephaly, mental retardation, liver and spleen damage, diabetes)

MMR VACCINE

One child in 20 gets a rash

Between five and 15 per cent of children get a fever seven to 12 days after vaccination, lasting one or two days

One child in 1,000 is hospitalised

One child in 1,000 gets convulsions

One child in 2,000 gets an ear infection

One chilld in 1,000,000 gets encephalitis

One child in 30,000 gets thrombocytopenic purpura,which is a fall in the number of blood platelets