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MMR and immune system overload

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

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It has been suggested that combined MMR vaccine could potentially overload the immune system

  • from the moment of birth, humans are exposed to countless numbers of foreign antigens and infectious agents in their everyday environment.
  • responding to the three viruses in MMR would use only a tiny proportion of the total capacity of an infant's immune system (Offit et al., 2002).

The three viruses in MMR replicate at different rates from each other and would be expected to reach high levels at different times

  • a study examining the issue of immunological overload found a lower rate of admission for serious bacterial infection in the period shortly after MMR vaccination compared with other time periods
    • this suggests that MMR does not cause any general suppression of the immune system (Andrews N, et al, 2019)

Reference:

  • Immunisation Against Infectious Disease - "The Green Book".Chapter 21 Measles (October 2019)

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