Another reason to get vaccinated – contracting measles lowers your natural immunity

By Maria Kyriacou

Image: Thinkstock
Image: Thinkstock
Anti-vaxxers' view that not getting vaccinated boosts immunity further discredited - measles making a dangerous return

Measles have been making a comeback. As a result of the falling rate of vaccinations, the disease that was eradicated in the year 2000, has had an unfortunate resurgence.

Before the vaccine’s introduction in the 1960’s, hundreds of people who contracted measles died every year.

A paper published in Science journal, has demonstrated how catching measles can affect children’s immunity to a variety of other serious diseases including meningitis and pneumonia.

Far from the unsubstantiated view by anti-vaxxers that vaccines demolish the body’s natural immunity, this study shows that immunity reverts back to that of a newborn baby.

Researchers found that in the years before and following the introduction of the measles vaccine in the U.K, Denmark and U.S, deaths from infectious diseases closely followed measles cases.

The evidence suggested that measles, which reduces white blood cells, might have been responsible for half of all childhood deaths from other infectious diseases.

A particularly worrying finding, was that the measles virus could even be able to destroy the immunity vaccinations for other diseases provide.

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