Birmingham woman who caught measles at 23 urges people to get jabbed

A woman who caught measles when she was 23 and now has ongoing health issues is urging those who have not been fully vaccinated to have the jab.

Ellie Roscoe, from Harborne in Birmingham, only had the first of two MMR jabs as a baby due to scares, since debunked, over their links with autism.

She was admitted to hospital when she fell severely ill with a rash, temperature and feeling delirious.

As cases rise in the city, she said a second "30-second jab" was worth it.

The latest outbreaks are centred in the West Midlands and London, but cases of measles have been rising across England.

Health officials are encouraging people to have the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab, after figures showed uptake at the lowest level for more than a decade.

Ms Roscoe, now 29, said she had a temperature and flu-like symptoms and her GP advised on two occasions it was just a virus and to "ride it out at home".

But when she came out in a "horrendous head-to-toe rash", with a hacking cough and temperature of over 39C, her mother called an ambulance and then took her to hospital.

She went to Heartlands Hospital and was "rushed through" as it was not clear if she had bacterial meningitis or measles, she said.

"Measles was something that was completely unheard of in adults as it was very rare to get it... but you can get it any age," she added.

Without the treatment she received from the infectious disease and immunology department she "wouldn't be here", she said, because it had spread into her lungs and liver.

"They were just fantastic and it was just a horrendous illness," she said.

Catching measles was "10 times worse" than having Covid, and Ms Roscoe said she now had auto-immune and gastric problems and was using a feeding tube.

"They can't say for 100% that the gastro [sic] and the feeding tube were as a result of measles, but a viral illness can cause gastro problems I've developed," she said.

She said she did not realised adults could still be vaccinated, and urged people her age who were caught up in "scaremongering" around the jab's links with autism to come forward for their jabs.

There is no evidence linking the MMR vaccine with autism, but scares spread after a researcher wrongly claimed the two were connected in 1998.

"It is something that as someone who has gone through it living with health problems, I would say to somebody for the sake of going to get a 30-second jab rather than going through measles and living with potential health problems for the rest of their lives, I would go and do it."

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