@MWolf yes you can get a disease after being vaccinated but it will be a milder case. My S18 had chicken pox even after being vaccinated. It was an extremely mild case. And no one is too young to get Shingles, FYI. I know 2 young teens that had it. I have Shingles now, because I was told I was too “young” for the vaccine. I’m now on a waitlist to get it. If you’ve had chicken pox, you’re old enough to get Shingles.
My D had shingles as a young teen and was miserable and got scars.
@Himom Are doctors recommending that your D get the Shingrix vaccine? My niece had a case of shingles this summer right around her 18th birthday and her doctor has recommended the vaccine to prevent any reoccurrence. She is considering it as like your D, she was really miserable.
@chb088 @HImom My sympathies. I got shingles a few years ago, also somewhat younger than the “normal” age. I was able to identify it almost immediately, so I went to the doctor and was able to go on antiviral treatment really quickly, and it was a relatively mild case. Even as a mild case I would not want to experience it again.
Yep, no age limit, since you never are cured from shingles. Once you get chickenpox you have shingles in remission. Luckily, your body will suppress it each time. Unluckily, it won’t be a pleasant time.
The days in which parents encouraged their kids to get chickenpox, since it was easier to get over as kids than as adults, are long gone…
In addition to calling reports of a measles epidemic “fake news,” Darla Shine, the wife of a high profile public official, keeps referencing a CNN report in an ongoing Twitter storm as her “evidence” that wild measles put a cancer patient in remission, the implications being that letting our kids actually get the measles would be protective. In fact, she says the following:
She clearly didn’t read the article carefully. For one thing, the patients in this very small study were not given measles (the disease), they were given a “highly concentrated dose of lab engineered measles virus” with enough virus to “inoculate 10 million people.” Sounds like an altered vaccine…
ONE of the five patients went into a remission which lasted 9 months. None of the other subjects achieved remission.
It’s promising enough that a phase II clinical trial is in the works.
However, nowhere in the study or the conclusions is there any mention that suffering from wild measles disease will cure or prevent cancer. Ms. Shine has been informed by countless Twitter responders about her misunderstanding, but she continues to double down on this dangerous claim.
https://www.cnn.com/2014/05/15/health/measles-cancer-remission/index.html
So this woman is either incredibly ignorant or willfully dishonest.
The bigger problem here: For the most part, anti-vaxxers have been spread across the political spectrum. However, If this becomes a partisan political issue, this could be a very dangerous development.
I don’t want this to be about specific parties or get into a political discussion, as that’s against TOS. But I think it’s important to mention when potentially influential people with a wide audience start an anti-vaccine campaign using tainted “evidence.”
https://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2018/winter/vaccines-mistrust-and-misinformation/
A relevant article to this topic?
No one has suggested D get vaccine for shingles. I will ask D to talk about it with her MDs and see what they recommend. She’s 29 currently and hasn’t had a 2nd bout of shingles. She did ask a dermatologist about it and early on but was just dismissed and never put on an antiviral.
@Nrdsb4 Thanks a ton for that info. It seems very likely that it’s what the lad is basing his info off of (or the lad’s parents are the more likely culprits). It could make a very nice “here’s the real story” discussion - if I get to do it Monday. Right now that’s really iffy. Mom was admitted to the hospital with a likely case of C Diff this morning and it’s not a pretty picture (partially because the nurses aren’t really doing their job - even when the doctor has specifically spelled it out for them - GRR!). If things don’t improve, I’m heading north Saturday. Return is unknown.
FTR, mom had measles as a kid. It sure didn’t stop her from being the first in her family line (that we know of) to get cancer - and a deadly one at that. She never smoked and was only a very, very light drinker - as in - wine with meals occasionally. The type she got (esophageal) is generally a male, smokers and/or heavy drinkers cancer - or reflux which she also didn’t have more than usual. Measles didn’t even stop her from getting such an unlikely one for her.
All four kids in my family got chickenpox together when I was 5 and my oldest sister 14. I remember the misery of itching and fighting against taking a pill. My oldest sister was so sick that I literally didn’t see her for a week – her bedroom was downstairs and she didn’t come out.
There was a piece on the evening news a couple nights ago. An anti-vaxxer mother was outraged that her now 18 son went out and started to get his vaccinations on his 18th birthday. She is also upset that her 14 year old daughter is doing her own “research” on vaccines. I guess that she feels that she is a failure as a mother.
There’s a social media meme going around and I’m not sure if it makes me want to laugh or cry:
“1999, teens sneak out of the house to go drink.
2009, teens sneak out to go smoke weed.
2019, teens sneak out to go get vaccinated”
Truth (in this particular aspect) hurts?
Unfortunately, prominent politicians in recent times in various parts of the political spectrum have been wavering, probably because they see vocal anti-vaccine sentiment among their possible voters. Becoming a partisan political issue would be dangerous; it would be even more dangerous if anti-vaccine became the political consensus across the various parties.
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/10/19/2016-presidential-race-clinton-trump-stein-johnson-vaccines-bio-pharmaceuticals/
https://www.chop.edu/news/feature-article-science-and-politics-presidential-candidates-vaccination
And of course we all know that baby boomers never, ever get cancer ;))
No one suggested that I get the Shingrix vaccine, but as soon as I am better, my husband and I will both be getting it. I do not wish Shingles on my worst enemy. I’m just back from my 3rd doctor in as many days. I’m told I’m lucky I’m not in the hospital (that’s common when you get it on/near your eye apparently).
Re: “The entire Baby Boom population alive today had the #Measles as kids”
Actually, the boomer generation conventionally includes people born from 1946 to 1964. Only people born before 1957 are assumed to have had measles in childhood. Measles vaccine was first licensed in the US in 1963.
There was a killed-virus measles vaccine available from 1963 to 1967 that was less effective than the live attenuated vaccine used now, so people who received that vaccine or an unknown type of vaccine during that time may want to get revaccinated, especially if they live in or visit areas with high levels of anti-vaccine sentiment.
Just curious – if the vaccine wasn’t available until 1963 – why would 1957 be the cutoff date for the assumption? Is that just a matter of statistics? Or was measles more likely to spread among school-age children. (I was born in 1954 and had measles at age 3. I know I was very sick for at least 2 weeks but I don’t have a personal memory – what I know is based on what my mom described to me when I was older.)
I had measles in 1958 at the age of 7. I remember the red blotches.
@ucbalumnus She felt that she was failure because she was unable to convince her kids about the evils of vaccinations.
Nonetheless she was able to raise a son who could think for himself.
I was born in the sixties and got the measles right before the vaccine was available. My mother never let me forget that I cried nonstop for about 24 hours and basically gave her a nervous breakdown. It was this family story that never died, how I made the whole house miserable while I was sick…