Measles

When me and my brother had measles we were very very poorly. We were ill enough for my mum to take time off work which was almost unheard of. Even worse she called a doctor.
We were a very poor family. None of us had ever seen a doctor before. I wasn’t as ill as my brother John. I had several times thought the still little body was dead and called out for my mum.
It was long before the Health Service was formed , in the years when the war was over but before our dad came home from the army .So mum was in charge and we knew how serious it was not to have her wage at the end of the week. But John was very ill indeed. I could get no reaction from him some of the time.
When the doctor arrived he examined us both and pronounced that in Johns case it was serious. He asked mum if there was any medicine in the house. There wasn’t.
He didn’t write a prescription but took a bottle out of his bag and counted out ten tablets. Two to be taken everyday for five days. It was before antibiotics . M and B he called them. Whatever that was.
My mum asked if I should have some . He shook his head.
"Your lads bad." He couldn’t make it any clearer. "He will die if he doesn’t pick up soon. " The tablets were for him. I accepted that as one of the basic facts of life . A lads life was worth more than a girls obviously.
Taking the tablets John did pick up but the cough persisted for a very long time.
This episode left me in no doubt that measles were serious. Even if they didn’t kill you , they weakened you , made you more likely to get other diseases.
I’ve heard young mums declaring that they were not letting their babies be immunised because it made them unwell.
This is true I imagine but a day or two of an unwell baby is worth it I think....measles is serious and can leave babies with weaknesses that persist through life.
I hope the present outbreak gets no worse and that mums see the sense in getting their babies immunised.


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