Lives were lost ... from: http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&HPA.../1195733835814
In 2006 there was one measles death in a 13 years old male who had an underlying lung condition and was taking immunosuppressive drugs. Another death in 2008 was also due to acute measles in unvaccinated child with congenital immunodeficiency whose condition did not require treatment with immunoglobulin. Prior to 2006, the last death from acute measles was in 1992.
All other measles deaths, since 1992, shown above are in older individuals and were caused by the late effects of measles. These infections were acquired during the 1980s or earlier, when epidemics of measles occurred.
The post-Wakefield deaths from measles in the UK are likely due to either lack of vaccination or lack of herd immunity. The fact that there had been no measles deaths in immunocompromised individuals between '92 and '06 suggests it was not their underlying medical condition but was instead the failure to vaccinate (the individual or community).
The current outbreak in Swansea is likely due to low levels of vaccination in the late 90's. Whether there are deaths or not (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/ap...idemic-mmr-jab) now there is a real chance of inevitably fatal cases of sub-acute sclerosing panencephalitis in years to come in those who catch measles now (these are the 'older individuals' referred to in the quote who acquired epidemic measles).
Globally measles kills about 18 children per hour ...
There are other similarities between the MMR publicity and the current neonic debate ...
One of the main problems with the MMR issue was that the first publication was in the Lancet - a respected peer-reviewed scientific journal. Scientific publication being what it is (i.e. a means for publishers to make money), a report supporting neonics is unlikely to be definitive enough - due to the complexity of the issue and the confounding issues of habitat destruction, mono-culture etc - to get published in a major journal. Similarly, negative results i.e. field-relevant concentrations of neonics have no detectable influence on x y z are also unlikely to achieve significant airtime.
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