Are measles contagious? | Measles vaccination

Are measles contagious?

Measles is a highly infectious and aerogenic (droplet infection) transmissible disease, so there is a risk of infection when speaking, sneezing or coughing. Anyone who comes into contact with affected people is very likely to fall ill themselves. With vaccination this is not given at any time. Admittedly, the so-called “vaccination measles“, which are visually similar to measles, occur relatively frequently as a complication of the vaccination. However, they are not contagious, unvaccinated persons need not be afraid of becoming infected at any time.

Is one contagious after a measles vaccination?

All vaccinations recommended by the STIKO (permanent vaccination commission), with the exception of yellow fever, do not pose any danger to nursing mothers and their babies and can be carried out without any problems. In the case of yellow fever, isolated cases have been reported in which breastfed babies have developed meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the brain and meninges) after the mother has been vaccinated against yellow fever. Only during pregnancy is live vaccination such as MMR or varicella generally not recommended for theoretical reasons. With dead vaccines such as influenza, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis A and B, even pregnancy is not an obstacle; influenza vaccination, also commonly known as flu vaccination, is even recommended.

Contraindication / When should I not be vaccinated?

As a rule, all healthy persons may be vaccinated against measles and also receive a combination vaccination against mumps, measles and rubella. If at the time of the vaccination date slight illnesses such as cough or rhinitis are present, the vaccination can still be administered without hesitation. A postponement of the measles vaccination is only necessary in feverish patients. Pregnant women, immunocompromised patients or persons taking immunosuppressive medication must not be vaccinated under any circumstances. In addition, patients who have reacted to an earlier vaccination dose with allergic reactions should not receive another measles vaccination.

Pros and cons

The MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) vaccination is still controversially discussed. Recommended by some, rejected by others, but who is right? The arguments of vaccination critics are that vaccination against measles is not absolutely necessary because the disease is not dangerous in the vast majority of cases.

This is true, it only becomes dangerous when complications arise. These include pneumonia, an inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) and meninges. Although the latter really occurs only rarely, namely in 0.1% of cases, 15-20% of them are fatal and 20-40% of them result in permanent brain damage.

The worst complication can be subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). Fortunately, this is extremely rare (1:100,000 – 1:1000,000), but it is certain to be fatal after a few months. The opponents of the vaccination further argue that the complications are not only rare, but can also be well treated.

This is also true, but one should be aware that the complications are nevertheless very dangerous and people still die from them, although very rarely. On the other hand, vaccination complications occur on average 1:1. 000.

000, so they are almost non-existent and, above all, do not end fatally. A measles complication on the other hand occurs on average 1:10,000. The vaccination advocates argue against it that a vaccination makes sense for the sole reason that measles is a purely human-pathogenic virus.

This means that the virus only infects humans, so that a comprehensive vaccination could eradicate the disease. The vaccination would thus create a so-called herd immunity, which would be particularly important for people who are immunocompromised. For them, a live vaccination like the MMR vaccination is too dangerous, a disease would even be life-threatening.

The argument of the opponents of the vaccination to protect babies from unnecessary interventions such as the MMR vaccination is also incomprehensible from the point of view of many doctors, because although they protect their children from the injection, they expose them to the risk of measles for the rest of their lives. Moreover, a measles complication is 100 -1000 times more likely than a vaccination complication. Measles is also a highly infectious disease.

It is already contagious five days before a visible outbreak of the disease – anyone who comes into contact with sick people will certainly fall ill as well. How many people would be affected and how often complications would arise is beyond the imagination of many. But why is it so controversially discussed if vaccination is as useful as just described?

An article by Andrew Wakefield from 1998 is to blame. His goal, supported by the pharmaceutical industry, was to create three individual vaccines from the MMR vaccination that could be sold at a much higher price. To achieve this goal, he had to prove that the combination vaccination was harmful by allegedly proving in a study that the MMR vaccination caused autism.This is not the case at all, as another large American study proved years later.

In society, however, the scandal increased mistrust of the vaccination, which has not been completely eradicated even today, although the connection between vaccination and autism has been clearly refuted. It should therefore be remembered that vaccination was given a bad reputation by a scientific scandal and not because it is dangerous. However, it is up to each individual to decide which arguments are decisive for him or her, but one should think carefully and examine and critically examine both sides of the coin.