With outbreaks of measles in Victoria, NSW and WA, this is a timely reminder that not being vaccinated against mumps, rubella and measles could lead to hearing loss if children or adults contract one of these diseases.
The anti-vaccination movement is in the news right now but there’s no arguing that vaccination programmes with good compliance have freed us from some terrible diseases – at least for those of us lucky enough to have access to them. As a small child I learned that there were other children being kept alive in an iron lung. As an adult I find the Iron Lung pictures heartbreaking. Thankfully, we are becoming polio free globally, and this is due to the polio vaccine.
As an audiological scientist, I’m interested in another story to do with vaccines. Rubella, commonly known as German measles, used to be a major cause of hearing loss. If a pregnant woman contracts Rubella, her baby may be born deaf.
In 1964 there was a big rubella outbreak in the USA. As a result, there were at least 8,000 babies born permanently deaf and 3,500 babies born who were both deaf and blind.
There is a famous story around the actress Gene Tierney that she was infected with the rubella virus whilst being hugged by an enthusiastic fan whilst she was pregnant with her first child. This child, Daria, was born deaf, blind and intellectually impaired. This sad story inspired Agatha Christie in writing “The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side” which later became a movie.
Today babies should be vaccinated to give them disease immunity. Immunisation is a safe and effective way of giving protection against disease. If we, as a community, act together to vaccinate our children, then we are helping to control and even eliminate serious diseases, such as rubella, as well as protecting our own children. As audiologists in Australia, we don’t see babies born deaf with rubella any more, apart from a few whose mothers have become infected overseas.
While Rubella is a mild disease for the sufferer with severe effects to the unborn child, measles is a potentially severe disease for the sufferer, and can lead to permanent deafness. One in 10 children with measles get ear infections and the consequences can for some be permanent hearing loss. Severe ear infections, resulting from measles can lead to encephalitis, once known as “brain fever”.
Measles is highly contagious, and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that 2.6 million people who have not had the vaccinations die of measles every year. Vaccination today protects children and indeed, Australia eliminated endemic measles in 2014, meaning that no-one in Australia has been infected by another Australian since then because of a strong herd immunity from vaccination. However, infections still occur due to mainly to travel, and to anti vaxxers. There were sadly, about 300 cases of measles in Australia last year. This is a rising trend that we must reverse.
In Australia, vaccination against rubella and measles is given in combination with a third viral disease—mumps. Mumps can also lead to viral deafness, though sometimes only in one ear. In fact, mumps was once the most common cause of one-sided deafness. Mumps can also lead to viral meningitis, which can also lead to deafness.
Conveniently, there is a safe combination vaccine for these three diseases. The MMR vaccine is very safe, and it is effective at preventing measles, mumps, and rubella. Most people who get MMR vaccine do not have any serious side effects with it. Getting MMR vaccine is much safer than getting measles, mumps or rubella.
There are 34 million children with disabling hearing loss worldwide. The World Health Organisation reports that 60% of childhood deafness is preventable, and that over 30% of childhood hearing loss is caused by diseases including measles, mumps, rubella meningitis and ear infections.
Want to read some more? – Hearing loss is common
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