I was sufficiently vaccinated against measles in childhood – or so I thought | Well actually

WI joined the chicken at the graduate school at the age of 53, I knew that I might be the oldest student in the classroom. But I stumbled from one of the admission requirements – a certificate of immunization for statistics, mumps and measles (MmrAnd tetanus vaccines, which were verified by the doctor.

Fortunately, I got my handwritten mother’s documents from my vaccinations and took this to the primary care doctor. She said, “Beautiful”, a fan of yellow paper works, which noticed the measles vaccine when I was 13 months old, and the other in 10 years. “But these are not official records, so you need a caliber test.” A What?

My doctor explained the caliber tests and measuring the levels of antibodies in the blood. The results gave me a episode. My stake in German measles was sufficient, but antibodies to mumps and measles were very low, and I needed Mmr The vaccine before the foot step on the campus.

It was a simple solution, but the accident remained in my mind. Why was the tatar low for antibodies to the anti -statistics despite two rounds of the vaccine? with The outbreak of this year’s record – 607 in the United States as of April 3, 2025 – I wondered whether the older adults should be interested in.

What if I was vaccinated between 1963 and 1967?

According to Dr. Scott Roberts, an infectious disease specialist at Yale University, adults who were immunized against measles between 1963 and 1967 – as I was – at risk. During that period, Roberts said, the children received either the broken measles vaccine or is directly arid. The idle version was less effective; He was arrested in 1967.

according to CDC centers (CDC) received nearly a million people in the United States, the vaccine that was activated between 1963 and 1967 ((tested in clinical trials in the UK but was not used at the end of 1967, and could not clarify the second Times test.

“If you know that you received the broken vaccine, or you do not know anyone you got in the 1960s,” said Dr. Eniruda Hazra, an expert on infectious medicine at Uchicago, said, “If you know that you received the broken vaccine, or you do not know anyone you got in the 1960s,” I do not know any person you got in the 1960s.

Adults can confirm immunity through a caliber test, as it did, but it can cost the test more than the MMR vaccine. Hazra said: “If you prefer to examine the Tatar first, this is a conversation that you do with your health care provider,” Hazra said.

But a low -caliber test does not necessarily mean that you are vulnerable to infection. Dr. Robert Bedenarchic, Associate Professor of World Health and Epidemiology at the Rollins College of the Public at Emory University healthHe made it clear that even if individuals who have been vaccinated with antibodies that can be discovered, they may have memory cells in their immune system ready to produce more antibodies against the virus.

What if you were born before 1957?

Before presenting the measles vaccine in 1963, measles were a major cause of death in children under the age of five. Infection can lead to hearing loss, deafness, or exhausted neurological side effects. What is the current recommendation for adults born before the vaccine?

“Anyone born before 1957 was subjected to a group,” said Hazra. Accordingly, the Center for Disease Control and ACIP [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] He said that we can assume that you have been exposed or acquired, and measles immunity is lifelong. “This means that no additional vaccine is recommended for this age group.

One or two shots?

If you are wondering about the number of shots you should have, the answer is slightly muddy.

Until 1989, the Disease Control Center recommended only one dose of MMR vaccine for children. After that, he recommended a second MMR dose to help “increase the immune response in a few people who did not completely respond to the first dose,” said Bednarczyk.

The Center for Disease Control currently recommends two doses of measles vaccine for children and “one or two” doses for adults, while keeping the recommendation.

“One dose is very effective in preventing measles,” said Bednarczyk. “This is important, because many people who were born before the middle or late eighties of the last century have received only one dose of MMR vaccine.” But he added that the people who were vaccinated before the recommendation

The vaccination scene has changed in recent years. Since the academic year 2019-20, vaccination rates between school children-which targeted 95 %-have decreased significantly. According to KFF, a non -profit health policies organization, only 11 American countries The 95 % vaccination rates were reported or higher in the 2023-24 academic year. Hazra said that previous vaccination recommendations took into account the fact that measles had been eliminated in the United States. “All adults who live in the United States should be considered highly dangerous,” he says, and they must receive two direct doses at some point in their lives, with the exception of adults born before 1957.

D. “If an adult receives only one vaccine from the MMR before serving two doses, they must think about getting a second dose.”

In the absence of official guidelines for all adults, there is one clear thing: direct two vaccines who give life for life. “There is also no value to get more than two,” said Hazra. If you know that you were vaccinated with two doses of direct vaccine, he says, there is no recommendation to another dose, even in the outbreak of the disease or travel internationally.

Does measles immunity diminish over time?

Last month, Robert P. Kennedy JuniorThe US Secretary of Health stated In an interview This immunity from the MMR vaccine “fades 4.5 % per year” and that “the elderly are not mainly imprisoned.”

“This is actually not true,” said Hazra. “If this is true, we will see more measles in people with a history of vaccination.” Hazra emphasizes the importance of including the elderly in the discussion of measles protection; They are more likely to complications from measles infections, which include pneumonia. But all the experts I spoke to warn of widespread wrong information about the measles vaccine. “The levels of antibodies against measles virus may decrease over time,” adds Bednarcdzyk. “But in the cases we have seen so far in 2025, only 3 % of the cases have documented the date of the measles vaccine.”

Are there side effects of the MMR vaccine?

Bednarczyk cites “There are no major differences for adults compared to children,” and side effects are usually exploding within a few days. “Many of these live vaccines raise a larger immune response for 24-48 hours,” he adds. “The body rises an immune response and creates a lot of energy to do so.”

The most common side effects are fever, pain and swelling at the injection site, headache, muscle pain, fatigue, or moderate rash. “In some very rare cases, there may be a short -term decrease in platelet levels in the blood after vaccination, which can also happen if you have measles virus,” said Bednarczyk.

Bednarczyk said, a person with measles is spreading to 18 new cases on average in non -improved individuals, making measles one of the most infectious diseases there. (Compared to, individuals with seasonal flu usually affect two other people.) “Mobile pathogens air flowing for two hours,” added Hazra. “You can affect many people because of this.”

MMR vaccination is much safer than getting natural immunity by infection. “The presence of measles manages the risk of complications at a later time,” Ngawin said. These inflammatory infections include “immune memory loss” and serious complications of measles.

Any person who is not sure of the vaccination should speak to his health care provider about a MMR or caliber test. A high level of immunity throughout the United States will help protect everyone.