The Impact of the Measles on my Family

As we’ve heard, cases of the measles have been reported in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington and now on a cruise ship in St. Lucia. Citing religious, personal, philosophical or some other beliefs, some parents are refusing to get their kids vaccinated and now a childhood disease that was once thought eliminated, is back.  In other cases, unvaccinated people are coming into the country and bringing the disease in with them. The  recent report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) explains it here.

There are several consequences related to the refusal to vaccinate and the first one, of course is an ill child. Usually this child has no say in the matter of getting an inoculation since he or she is a minor. Another concern (and this one affects me) is that because of someone else's beliefs, my husband and I are now obligated to visit the doctor, hand over a co-pay and other associated laboratory fees and get a measles titer test to check if we have the antibodies that will determine if we are immune to the disease. Normally I’d keep my opinion to myself, but we have some upcoming events in our lives that make it necessary to have this test done. 

I had the measles back before the MMR vaccine was even created and I survived. The problem is, I don’t remember if it was the German Measles (Rubella) or Measles and my parents aren’t here anymore to ask.  So, off we go to get checked and if there is no immunity, we'll get the proper treatment. My reasoning is that there are other lives that are more precious to me than my religious, personal or philosophical beliefs.