/r/AskScience Vaccines Megathread

Death is not the only result from infection. When I was a kid, all we had was polio vaccine, maybe smallpox. Only about 4-5% of people who got polio even had any symptoms, but those were some pretty bad symptoms to have. You could end up in an iron lung, or just have to wear leg braces for the rest of your life.

My sister and I had regular measles (rubeola) and German measles (rubella), and we survived, although our parents think the high fever from rubella messed up my sister's brain.

I had whooping cough for like 2 weeks, I think. Anyway it was a long time, and it was exhausting. I almost had to go to the hospital from dehydration.

We never had the mumps, but a lot of kids did, and they were usually out of school for a while, some having to have minor surgery.

In my daughter's generation, stuff like that didn't happen. That in itself is worth it to a lot of parents.

But even though healthy people can get through such diseases okay, there are a lot of immunocompromised people around, and a lot of pregnant women, especially when you're talking about elementary school.

Rubella is really not that dangerous if you're not a fetus, but:

What would happen to my baby if I got rubella during pregnancy?

A rubella infection can cause miscarriage, preterm birth, or stillbirth, as well as a variety of birth defects, but it depends on how far along you are when you contract the virus. The risks are highest during the early stages of a baby's development and they go down as pregnancy progresses.

If you get rubella during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, there's a high chance (up to 85 percent) that your baby will develop CRS. The rate of CRS for a baby whose mother is infected between 13 and 16 weeks is about 54 percent, and the rate continues to go down sharply from there. After 20 weeks there's very little risk that the infection will cause a birth defect.

There's a wide range of very serious problems associated with CRS, most commonly deafness, eye defects (which may lead to blindness), heart malformations, and neurologic problems, such as intellectual disability. Other defects may also be evident at birth, or problems may surface later in infancy and childhood.

Regular measles seems to increase the risk of miscarriage, and can cause encephalitis.

Mumps can inflame the testicles, leading to infertility; can cause encephalitis, possibly damaging the brain; can cause hearing loss; and again miscarriage.

/r/askscience Thread