Recent outbreak of rubella and especially mumps with a rise of some 350% in just over a year, affecting children and young men in educational establishments like schools and Universities has indeed taken these families by surprise.
From late eighties to early two thousand, due to misinformation spread by well-intended but misinformed medical professionals, hinting that autism is somehow connected with MMR, resulting in what is known as “Wakefield Generation” who grew up without protection of MMR, as many parents avoiding MMR jabs for their children, believing in the misinformation about MMR somehow responsible for autism.
Some parents’ preferred single vaccination at a time but most of them failed to carry out the full course, leaving their children at a risk of such outbreak, as mumps, rubella, measles and similar illnesses that MMR vaccines could protect against are on the rise when these illnesses should have been totally eliminated. Unfortunately a tiny number of mumps cases may lead to contagious infection leading to viral meningitis putting young lives at risk.
The age group of between 15 and 22 are most at risk and most affected victims belong to this group, especially university students who live, study and mix as a group, passing such infection within the group with ease. No wonder there were 5000 such cases among students just in a year. The anti-vaxx campaign is still running on social media, although it has been proved beyond doubt that it is safe and saves lives if children are vaccinated when they are young.
Some politicians even advocate extreme measures to bared children from schools if they are not vaccinated, arguing that why their children should be put at risk for the failure of a tiny number of parents who have failed to protect their children! It is time government should educate and introduce some laws to protect all children, banning such misinformation spread on the social media.
Kumudini Valambia
By email
