I was healthy. Measles still hit like a truck.

I arrived at the emergency room about a week after I started feeling unwell. At first, I thought I had the flu. I was extremely lethargic and achy, and then I eventually coughed so much I puked. That’s when the rash appeared. 

As a child, I received some vaccines, but not the MMR. My parents had my best interests at heart, but they were generally suspicious of conventional medicine and big pharma. They also believed the MMR vaccine could cause autism.

As an adult, I knew I was missing some vaccines, but I wasn’t sure which ones. I would get vaccines whenever advised, but it wasn’t a priority for me. Occasionally, it would cross my mind that I ought to fill in the gaps, but since I hadn’t gotten sick, I let it go.

Then, I was diagnosed with measles.

I remember not having to wait very long in the emergency room. By the time I arrived, I was struggling to stand or walk. I fully expected to be sent home with advice to rest, but the doctor took my vitals and told me I was seriously unwell. The rash then spread all over my body, and my face swelled up.

I was very scared. I’d never been ill like this before and was otherwise healthy. Within a couple of hours, I was diagnosed with measles. They isolated me, given how contagious the disease is, and I was in a private ward for 3 or 4 nights. The only time I left that room was to get my lungs X-rayed, which they did about once a day. Some doctors stuck their heads in the door just because they had not seen a case of measles before. 

At one point, the ICU doctor came to check on me because I was taking a turn for the worse. Fortunately, I stabilized and wasn’t admitted. I was in a lot of pain, though, and was barely able to eat, hooked up to oxygen the entire time I was there, and my skin became extremely dry, especially my face. 

I was still weak when I was discharged, but I had improved enough to get home safely. It took weeks for my skin to return to normal and my chest to clear up. I lost a lot of weight and struggled to eat for a while afterward. I felt quite weak for a month or so.

My housemate caught measles from me. He was vaccinated, but didn’t get nearly as sick and recovered after a few days’ rest. 

I live in a large city and passed by hundreds of people in the days leading up to my hospitalization. I’ve since learned that measles is the most contagious virus, and that an infected person will be contagious days before they actually develop a rash. If nobody were vaccinated, it would spread extremely quickly.

Maybe someone would think that the risk of contracting it is so low it’s not worth it, which is, I guess, an assumption I made when I procrastinated getting myself vaccinated as an adult. But the reason most people are unlikely to catch measles is that most people are vaccinated. The fewer people who take the vaccine, the greater the risk to the community as well as the individual. I believe that with accurate information – that the vaccine is safe and measles is not – the decision to vaccinate would not be a debate because everyone would choose it.

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