Mild
If caught in childhood, measles is usually “a mild infection (where) complications are rare”.[1] These words were written when social conditions in the UK were far worse than today. The Irish Government record of the 1999 epidemic in Dublin makes the same point: 1,400 cases, of which 111 were admitted to hospital where only 13 needed intensive care. Of the three deaths in the city, one was a 12 month old girl from a very poor family living in grim conditions, and the second a two year old boy with a severe malformation of the throat which linked his windpipe to his oesophagus. No details of the third death are available.

A mum’s perspective
“When my unvaccinated daughter caught measles, she was unwell for several days, then developed a high fever and came out in spots. Kept in warm, airy conditions, given pure liquids (but absolutely no medicines), she emerged with an enhanced immune system and cleared of some inherited and acquired diseases tendencies. This is precisely what eruptive childhood illnesses are for.”

Protect with a nourishing diet
As early as 1932 hospital doctors were using cod-liver oil to reduce deaths from measles. In one case the success rate was 58%. A 1993 US study showed that 72% of children with measles who were hospitalised were vitamin A deficient. The worse the deficiency, the worse the complications and the higher the death rate.[2]