MMR jab for a 43 and three quarters years old!

Hello, has anyone with brittle asthma had an MMR jab as an adult? I am on Prednisolone 40mg daily at the mo, Atrovent and Salbutamol nebs, Uniphylin and a whole raft of other meds. Occupational health have told me to attend for the first of a series of MMR jabs on da 14th March.

I do not have much confidence in Occ Health as they were adamant that it was safe for me to have a flu jab when i was on Amoxicillin 500mg and Pred 40mg. My chest consultant said to wait till course finished but they wanted to jab me straight away!

My chest consultant in Hull is on annual leave and my difficult asthma clinic consultant is on Maternity leave and the locum wary of giving advice as i haven't met him yet.

Oh dear... i don't think i present too much of a threat to the great British public as i have had measles in my 30's and had the rubella vacc at school. But Occ Health think differently and want all NHS staff in our area to be jabbed irrespective of long term conditions or other issues. Incidentally i never take sick leave i use my holidays when i'm in Costa or too wheezy to work and when i'm well accrue extra hours to ensure i have a 'bank' of time. This is my choice and helps me greatly it makes me feel i'm a bit more in control of a condition that dominates my life more than i want it to!. Apologies for long post any advice re MMR very welcome, thank you, Lois

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hi there lois

I am a brittle asthmatic too and worked for the nhs till i was retired on medical grounds recently-a few years ago the nhs trust i worked for wanted all staff to have this vaccine- on an asthma front my consultant didnt think it would be too much of a problem however as i also have addison's disease i cant have live vaccines which meant that i couldnt have the MMR jab. From an asthma point of view i think its ok however obviously i would try to get a consultant or docs point of view before you go ahead just to be on the safe side.

Take care and good luck. Lv kat Xx

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Hi,

I am a brittle asthmatic as well. I had my first mmr jab when I was young but I recently had to ahve a second one as it is advised. Not sure why but the university did a catch up so everyone got a second mmr jab. I was fine with it and had no adverse effects. I am 23.

Olive

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My daughter had to have the mmr on the childrens ward because of her suspected egg allergy. I think it and the flu jab are the two grown? on egg so be careful if your allergic.

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Because of all the scare issues surrounding the MMR vaccine over the last ten years or so, vaccination rates have dropped so significantly that we are facing an increase in the number of measles cases through the country. There has also been an increase in the incidence of mumps.

For this reason, there is a country-wide (I think) initiative to get all NHS staff fully vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. For most people, this will mean being vaccinated from scratch as they may never have been vaccinated as a child - this will mean two doses of MMR. Others like myself may have been part of the initial ""catch-up"" campaign that occurred in the early 90s, and so have already been immunised.

However, you have every right to ask to have your immunity status checked via blood test prior to being ""jabbed"" - particularly given the pred issues, and the fact that you may very well already have some immunity to both rubella and measles - so I'd be inclined to do that first, rather than just jabbing you to conform to policy

HTH

CathBear

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Thank you for the replies, CathBear is it okay to have the MMR jab when you are on Prednisolone (am on 40mg daily). Thanks for explaining why i am being asked to have it too, love Lois

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Hi ya,

as an allergic person, you need to be very careful about the other things in vaccines such as the preservatives. I am allergic to thimeresol, which is a mercury based preservative although it has been removed from most little kids vaccines it is still in others such as tetenus. you can get these vaccines without but you have to get people to check. some flu vaccine still has it. I know there other bits of vaccines that people are allergic to. Like Cathbear says get tested for immunity. I am still immune to tetenus but have not had the jab for 20 years! (was very sick last time)

good luck

Ri

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Hi Lois. You're in a bit of a grey area, really. The problem with the MMR vaccine is that it is a live attenuated vaccine, and live vaccines are usually contraindicated in people who are immunosuppressed. At 40mg of pred, you're in the category of ""possible immunosuppression"" - so really, Occy Health should be checking your immune status first, and then deciding what to do about your protection if you are not immune - i.e., are the risks of you catching measles/mumps outweighed by the risks of vaccinating you.