woody1173

So wife and I and baby were scheduled to fly tomorrow to Sicily (via FRA). Baby had 1st bday this past saturday, and went in Monday for 1-yr checkup. At that checkup, she was scheduled to get her MMR vaccination (among others). Upon finding out we were going to Europe in 3 days, Doc pointed us to CDC website, and strongly recommended that we cancel. Vaccination takes 10-12 days to become effective, so baby would NOT have been protected against measles while we were there. In short, our conclusion was that there was a very slim chance of baby getting measles, but we would not be able to live with ourselves if she did. We are cancelling our award tix in the new LH C.

I have traveled extensively worldwide (Vietnam, Cambodia, India, China, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bali, South Africa, etc etc) and have always checked to see what vaccinations I needed. It didn't occur to me to check CDC for travel to western Europe.

So the point of my post is to alert anyone else traveling anywhere overseas with a baby to check CDC; you can get the MMR shot as young as 6 months if traveling.

But also, I wanted to possibly invite a public flogging: was I stupid not to check CDC earlier? Should I have known better?

6rugrats

No public flogging here. Personally, I wouldn't ever have thought to check this, and I don't think I'd cancel my trip over this issue.

geclub1

I would not have cancelled the trip.

NotAFreqFlyer

No flogging here. It wouldn't have occured to me to check the CDC website, either, but I probably would have checked with my pediatrician's office when we booked the flight. We took DD on a cruise when she was about 15 months old and discussed this with our pediatrician shortly after booking and are glad we did, since she recommended that we move the Hep A shot up a few months so DD would be covered before we left. Our pediatrician also let us know how far in advance of the trip that DD would need to have the shot in order to be covered.

Hindsight is always 20/20, so just count this as a lesson learned. I think you absolutely made the right call in cancelling your trip. No vacation is worth more than your child's health.

erik123

CDC is more concerned in whether you are taking back measles into the US - as the Western hemisphere is measles free but importations still occur - mostly from kids coming from Europe. The chance of catching measles in Europe is not that great - and though it can be dangerous very few children in the west die because of it.

mjpaci

I never would've thought to check the CDC, either.

We had a few cases of measles here in Boston last year or the year before that they traced to a foreign-national from Western Europe (don't remember which country and don't want slander an innocent country) working at their country's consulate here. My wife is from Germany and she remembers having measles and has said she doesn't ever want to go through that again.

That said, thank you for posting this and I am sorry you had to cancel your trip - did you rebook?

CDTraveler

Before my son's first trip to Europe at age 2 1/2 years, I had emailed the Dutch consulate with a question (don't even remember what that was) but the answering email included the info that the area of the NL we were about to visit was having a meningitis outbreak and I should have my son vaccinated for that (it's been a decade, I don't remember what strain it was) if there was a chance he would be around local children. As we were going to be staying at a bungalow park full of families, we did move up a couple vaccinations, but were unable to get the meningitis shot because that particular one was not available in the US.

All of that did make us more cautious at parks and playgrounds, and we did a whole lot of extra handwashing.

I think you did the right thing in cancelling. Erik123 makes the point that not many die of measles, but that doesn't help those who suffer long complications, like my friend's little brother who lost his hearing from measles.

As a bit of consolation for you, to support your decision, I post this:
(http://www.medicinenet.com/measles_rubeola/page8.htm)

jstevenson0617

I also would not have cancelled the trip. We traveled with our first when she was 4 weeks old. The doctors were very concerned because the baby would not have her DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) for the trip. I did some research and we made an educated decision to travel anyway. Of course, we ended up delaying some vaccinations and in some cases didn't get them at all.

ETA: We were not traveling outside the US so this certainly makes a difference.