Please don't "bring back our childhood diseases"

In response to the current outbreak of measles in Washington, the spouse of a prominent U.S. government official recently tweeted this:

“Bring back our #ChildhoodDiseases they keep you healthy and fight cancer”

Here are some reasons I think that is a really bad idea:

·         Measles causes death in 1 to 3 of every 1000 reported cases in the United States and acute encephalitis, which often causes permanent brain damage, occurs in approximately one out of a thousand cases. It is one of the most contagious of all infectious diseases.

·         Rubella (German measles) during pregnancy can result in miscarriage, fetal death, or a host of birth defects involving the eyes, heart, ears, and brain.

·         Polio can cause an acute paralysis in childhood at the time of infection which can lead to respiratory failure and 25-40% of persons who had polio as a child develop a slow, irreversible muscle weakness decades after the original infection.

·         Diphtheria is fatal in 5-10% of cases, often by causing strangulation by the swelling and obstruction of one’s airway.

·         Pertussis (whooping cough) causes a severe cough that can last 10 weeks or more and two thirds of infants with Pertussis are hospitalized. One in one hundred infants younger than two months of age with Pertussis die. Other complications include seizures, fainting, broken ribs (from coughing so hard), and pneumonia.

·         Haemophilus influenzae (not “the flu”) causes a variety of infections including pneumonia, meningitis, bloodstream infections, epiglottitis (an infection of the upper airway which can cause swelling which obstructs the windpipe), infected joints, skin infections, etc. Prior to introduction of the Hib vaccine, this was the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in children. Since introduction of the vaccine, H. Flu infections have decreased by 99%.

·         Pneumococcus causes a variety of different serious infections in children including severe pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and meningitis. Serious infections with pneumococcus have decreased by 76% in the U.S. since the introduction of the vaccine.

·         Rotavirus causes vomiting, diarrhea and fever which can last for up to seven days. Since introduction of the vaccine, hospitalizations for Rotavirus in the U.S. have decreased by 75% (40,000 to 50,000 fewer children hospitalized each year).

And childhood diseases do not "keep you healthy and fight cancer" either.

Data source: AAP, Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases, 31^st Edition