I remember it well. The summer I was six years old (a very long time ago), my older sister had a rash on her chest and then bam, it was everywhere. I remember thinking, glad it isn’t me but guess what? Woke up the next day with the same rash! No one was allowed to come to our house for what seemed to be an eternity. Adding insult to injury, we also had the mumps and chickenpox the same summer. So much for summer vacations! This personal experience underscores the MMR vaccine importance.

Then the MMR vaccine was developed, and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) became something people talked about but rarely experienced. Measles is serious and deadly. Up to 40% of patients experience complications up to and including blindness, hearing loss, pneumonia, seizures, and meningitis. As with many diseases, those who are immunocompromised are at a high risk for complications. In fact, just one single, infected person can infect nine people who are unvaccinated! In comparison, someone with COVID-19 may infect between one and three other unvaccinated people, and look at how alarmed we get if someone has COVID!

The CDC published a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that tied 57 measles cases to a migrant shelter in Chicago. In fact, most cases in the U.S. appear to be the result of an infected person traveling from a country where measles is endemic or where there is an outbreak. Do you know the vaccination status of your residents? Likely not, as adults when the vaccine was developed, they likely did not get vaccinated. Another concern is your staff with young children at home. Although we can’t ask them, we can encourage them to check their own vaccination status and get their youngsters vaccinated. Remember, one unvaccinated person can share the infection with nine others. You can read our previous post about vaccine hesitancy if you have any questions about reducing hesitancy.

Understanding the MMR vaccine importance is vital for senior living. Keep your residents healthy, prevent the spread of infection in your center, and stay well and informed!