Measles: Near-Scare?

The hubby just called me at work to tell me that someone in his office just went to the ER under the suspicion that he or she has measles. I guess the Powers That Be at the office didn't want to name names to protect that individual from being smacked for his or her irresponsibility.

Of course, being 29 weeks pregnant, I flipped out. There's a measles outbreak in Toronto at the moment, and the main reason is that PARENTS DON'T HAVE THEIR KIDS VACCINATED!!! That totally pisses me off because it puts the general population at risk. Parents are weary of vaccinating their kids now because they think that vaccines are linked to autism. Newsflash: autism becomes apparent at around the same time as kids are of age to start getting vaccinated. There's no medical evidence linking the two!

I know that I've had my MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) vaccine, but that was done over 10 years ago. Am I immune if the hubby gets sick? Did he ever get the MMR vaccine? Right now he's trying to get a hold of his mom to ask - we're still waiting to find out...

Anyway, I decided to call my doctor to be on the safe side. I was told that I *should* be okay, but suggested that I call MotherRisk just to be on the safe side. The lady at MotherRisk said that unlike Rubella (German Measles), if the mother gets sick with the measles, the baby is UNHARMED. That's at least a relief. Rubella, on the other hand, is another beast altogether. If the mother contracts Rubella, the baby can end up being born with birth defects. I know I'm fine for Rubella (I had a blood test to check up on my immunity to that before I got pregnant), so that's at least a relief. But that's neither here nor there - measles are the cause for concern right now, not Rubella.

The lady at MotherRisk also said that I should *technically* be immune to the measles because I got my MMR vaccine, but these things are never 100%. I still got sick with the whooping cough when I was 8 even though I had my DPT vaccine, so I am very painfully aware of the fact that she's right.

Still, I find this whole situation annoying. It's a total waiting game for us, and what a big pile of pooh this is. We have our HypnoBirthing class tonight, and we don't even know if we should show up...GAH!!!