Fun and Games with Measles?

Remember when everyone would get measles and it would be so much fun?

Yeah, I don’t either. Mostly because I grew up in the post-elimination era for measles.

Fun and Games with Measles?

But neither does anyone else who really experienced measles.

Do you typically want to play board games when you have a high fever?

Remember, kids with measles typically have a temperature above 104^o F for 4 to 7 days. They also have conjunctivitis, cough, decreased appetite, and are irritable.

It should be clear that the article is only talking about the convalescent stage of measles, when you are starting to feel better and your fever has broken.

Anti-vaccine folks, whether they push articles like this, or talk about the Brady Bunch episode, dolls with measles, or children’s books about measles, also don’t mention that during a “measles year,” like they had in Minneapolis in 1963, a lot of people died.

Were our grandparents afraid of measles, which was described at the time as a “harmless killer?”

You bet they were!

Did they try to distract us with board games until you could make it out of the house and back to school? Why wouldn’t they?

Eleanor Abbot designed Candy Land for kids recovering from paralytic polio in 1948. That doesn’t mean that having paralytic polio was all fun and games, does it?

You know what else isn’t harmless? Folks who push this kind of anti-vaccine propaganda. Don’t let them scare you into keeping your kids unvaccinated and unprotected. Vaccines are safe and necessary.

More on Fun and Games with Measles

• VAXOPEDIA – The Myth That Measles Isn’t Deadly
• VAXOPEDIA – The Brady Bunch Measles Episode
• VAXOPEDIA – The Pacific Northwest Measles Outbreak of 2019
  
• VAXOPEDIA – News on the Latest Measles Outbreaks of 2019
• VAXOPEDIA – What to Do If Your Child Is Exposed to Measles
  
• VAXOPEDIA – How Contagious Is Measles?
  
• VAXOPEDIA – Why Do We Only Worry About Measles?
• VAXOPEDIA – Who Dies with Measles?
  
• VAXOPEDIA – A History of Measles Outbreaks in the United States
  
• VAXOPEDIA – Measles Deaths in Italy
  
• VAXOPEDIA – Measles Deaths in the 21st Century
  
• VAXOPEDIA – When Was the Last Measles Death in the United States?
  
• VAXOPEDIA – How Many People Get Measles Each Year?
  
• VAXOPEDIA – Costs of a Measles Outbreak
• Minnesota officials remind parents that measles can cause seizures, comas, death