Please Vaccinate Your Child - A Message from a Mother Who Lost Hers

 I have written about the issue of vaccinations before. 

A British mother, Rebecca Archer, lost her 10-year old daughter to measles in 2023. 

What is especially poignant about the story is that her daughter, Renae, got measles at 5 months old. She was months away from being inoculated but, after a hospital stay, recovered. 

Renae was a happy, bubbly child but things changed when she was 10. She started having seizures, and seemed confused and robotic. 

From the New York Times:

Within a week she seemed back to normal. What I didn’t know was that measles can cause long-term complications. A child can seem fine while the virus slowly replicates in her brain, poised to exact a terrible toll years later. 

 

Because both Britain and the United States are confronting outbreaks, I am sharing my story. Parents should know just how dangerous this disease is. 

The doctors put her on an antibiotic drip. They did lumbar punctures, collecting cerebrospinal fluid from between her vertebrae. They hooked her to a machine that took the blood out of her body, cleaned it, and put it back in. 

We got the diagnosis when one of the tests of her spinal fluid had come back from London. Renae had subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare complication of measles. The doctors told me it was fatal, and there was nothing else they could do.

She notes:

In January of this year, Britain lost its measles elimination status. Our national M.M.R. vaccination rate hovers at 84 percent, far below the 95 percent target set by the World Health Organization. 

In the United States, where schoolchildren are required to be vaccinated against measles, the national vaccination rate is 92 percent. Many states also allow for exemptions to vaccine requirements, and as a result, U.S. vaccination rates are uneven. Last year, the United States saw its highest rate of measles cases in more than three decades and the country may soon lose its measles elimination status as well.

Parents must realize that refusing vaccinations doesn’t just put your own child at risk. It puts other children at risk. I don’t know where Renae picked up measles. It’s one of the most contagious viruses that exists, and it could have been from anywhere. 

My own sister had polio as a child. Polio. We are lucky she didn't die or become paralyzed. Nonetheless, she was weakened for the rest of her life.

Please, for your child and other children, vaccinate your child.