Quote:
Originally posted by ISUKappa
The vaccination is only good for so long; you need a booster every 10-15 years or so to make sure you stay immune.
Most children get the MMR vax before preschool which means they should get a booster before they go to college.
It's also affecting older adults (late 40s on up) who never had the vaccine.
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I had to get another MMR recently when I moved to where I am now...
So it sounds like folks vaccines stopped working and mumps has been hanging out forever in that area, but folks just haven't been re-vaccinated...
Also, it is interesting that measles hasn't made a comeback recently either...
And since both mumps, measles, rubella, pertussis and diptheria are DNA viruses (I think?) and the vaccination is against a protein marker that doesn't change, then it would very strange that the virus "mutated" in the sense that vaccine protect because that's not how I was taught how it works...
Now, tuberculosis is different because it's caused by a bacteria that can become antibiotic resistant...
And HIV is different because the proteins on HIV actually do mutate which a vaccine wouldn't work effectively and because HIV is a diploid RNA virus.
And chickpox is an alpha simplex herpesvirus--another RNA virus but it's single stranded--so it's structure doesn't change--that's why a vaccine can be made against that.
Either way, it stresses the importance of getting vaccinated. Because having the actual disease is disabling. And there are always secondary infections that can occur. Think of it this way, if one virus gets in, it opens the door for other infections to get in that you cannot fight off naturally...