A Salford mum, whose 10-year-old daughter died from measles complications, is urging parents to make sure their children are fully vaccinated.
Rebecca Archer wants to make sure everyone fully understands after losing her 10-year-old daughter, Renae, in September 2023 from problems caused by having measles as a baby.
Renae caught the infection at just five months old when she was too young to be vaccinated.
Rebecca said: “She was poorly for a few days… after that, everything went back to normal – she was fit and healthy.”
But 10 years later, Renae’s school phoned to say she’d had a seizure. “She had one every week, and then I think it was the third seizure where they [did] an MRI, and then that’s when they discovered there was some swelling on her brain. Her motor functions started to deteriorate – she just slowly couldn’t speak or eat,” added Rebecca.
“When she went into ICU, they didn’t know what was actually causing [it].”
Renae had developed a rare brain disease, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) caused by her previous measles infection.
Rebecca added: “[Renae hadn’t] had the MMR vaccine because she was under 12 months old.
“If there wasn’t an outbreak and more kids had their vaccinations, then she wouldn’t have got the measles in the first place. And it wouldn’t have ultimately ended her life.”
According to the NHS, “Measles is one of the world’s most infectious diseases with estimates showing that one infected adult or child can pass the disease onto around 15 other unvaccinated people.”
Measles can spread very easily among those who are unvaccinated, especially in nurseries, schools and universities.
Catching measles can lead to life changing issues for adults and children, such as blindness, deafness and swelling of the brain (encephalitis) – and those in certain groups, including babies, pregnant women, and people with weakened immunity, are at increased risk of these complications.
Find out more about NHS vaccinations at: NHS vaccinations and when to have them – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Recent Comments