MMR changes?

anyone know if this is right it says in The Star ' the age for receiving MMR vaccinations has been brought forward to try and contain the measles outbreak in the region. The DDHB yesterday announced that rather than being vaccinated at 15 months and 4 years Canterbury children should now be vaccinated at 12 months and 13 months.'

that doesn't sound right..esp cause it's to help with the outbreak which has mostly affected unvaccinated teenagers.. though it did say 10 ECE centres and 23 schools had cases

(page A2 down the bottom if you get the star)

Yip, that is the case!

Measles spreads so fast that they are doing all they can to stop it spreading furthur in ChCh. They are recommending all children in the area have their immunisations brought fwd.

Although lots of the children that have the measles were unimmunised it is also affecting alot of immunised children which is were the concern it.

They have also started excluding some children from school for up to 2 weeks that are non immunised and have been in contact with someone with a confirmed case of the measles.

This will only be for a short period of time until the measels is "contained" and you don't "have" to actually follow their advice if you are comfortable with where your child is at.

Yep we took the girls in a month early because of the outbreak.

Well the thing is it's So So contagious and while it's generally the school kids that get it I imagine it could do a lot more damage to a very young child. So I guess it would make sense that they were looking at moving it forward to try and safeguard more of the babies.

But like Peanut said you can wait until the 15 months if you'd rather.

Measles is up in Auckland now too so it's definitely doing the rounds.

Apparently you get it now but then also again at 4, there has been a flyer go out but it's still a bit confusing, probably ring your doc and ask them.

I thought I'd clarify this as we have just been down this road.

Advice from our nurse, which was from the DHB/MOH -
-15mo immunisations are being brought forward to 12mo.
-the 2nd MMR vaccine (the typical 4yo one) is then given at 13mo, or if your child is older, at least 1 month after their last MMR vaccination.

We went in for Jack's 2nd MMR one today as there has been at least 1 confirmed case at his daycare and after ringing the nurse yesterday to get his record faxed through to DC, she told us to come in and get the booster to ensure maximum immunity.

So the article, where it states 12mo and 13mo, means that if they are that young, they get them at those times to replace the 15mo and 4yo ones. If you have older kids you can just ring (or you may be called up) to get the 2nd jab.

As far as I know they don't then get the MMR one again at 4yo as our nurse wrote in the 4yo box in the immunisation record. I guess they'll re-evaluate that later on and decide on whether there's a need.

As for being excluded if not fully immunised (or at least 1 MMR imm), it's a 2-week stand down as far as I'm aware. So yep KA looks like the article is right. Because it's only just been advised a lot of people aren't aware of it, and also because most of the cases have been in older children/teenagers to date there hasn't been as much emphasis on bringing imms forward for the little ones.

Th DC is obliged to tell you so you should be verbally told or a note/letter in the childs bag or pigeon hole.

Just some info - 90-95% of children are atually fully immunised after the first vaccination so it is not always essential to get the second one to gain immunity.

Obviously if your child is exposed it is a different story.

I personally am not taking DS to get his 4 year one early as don't like the concept of injecting that close together. My Dr is happy with this and is not insisting on all kids coming in only those that have been exposed. This is also acceptable by the CDHB.

nope just chch..

Scary, It's concerning enough giving the MMR to 15 mth olds let alone younger.... hopefully the outbreak will be on the decrease before I am affected...