Teenage girl ‘is killed by mumps’ on family holiday
Did she pick up disease from unvaccinated carrier of virus?
A TEENAGE girl has died on a family holiday after she developed complications from suspected mumps, say her family.
Molly Bower, 17, was on a week-long trip with her aunt and uncle to Alcudia in Majorca when she began showing symptoms.
This is despite her having been given her childhood immunisations – raising the shocking prospect that she could have picked up the virus from an unvaccinated carrier.
Doctors fear the return of higher death rates in children caused by measles, mumps and rubella because fewer are having the MMR jab.
Molly first complained her face felt swollen shortly after they landed on October 7. She told family she thought she had an abscess, but when they looked up her symptoms online they became worried she had mumps. They followed advice and gave her ibuprofen, but Molly’s condition deteriorated. She began to vomit and became delirious.
She was seen by an in-house doctor on Friday at Club Mac Alcudia, where the family were staying.
The doctor also believed she had mumps and prescribed paracetamol and ibuprofen, but she died less than 24 hours later.
A post-mortem examination on Molly, from Sherburn Hill, County Durham, is expected to take place. Her devastated family last night said she had been immunised as a child.
A single dose of the MMR vaccine provides 78 per cent immunity against mumps, while two doses provides 88 per cent immunity. It does not mean there is no risk of contracting mumps at all.
County Durham has the best uptake of MMR in England. Last year 96.4 per cent of children had received both doses of the vaccine by their fifth birthday.
High uptake rates are crucial in creating ‘ herd immunity’ – indirect protection from disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population is immune.
However, complacency among parents and some doctors – along with unfounded fears over the MMR jab fomented by misinformation campaigns on the internet – have hit immunisation rates all over Britain. Panic around the MMR vaccine began in 1998 after now- disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefieled linked the jab to autism, in a study which has since been discredited.
Measles, mumps and rubella are all potentially serious, even deadly, illnesses. Last week The Mail launched its ‘Give the children their jabs’ campaign amid a rising number of cases of measles fuelled by falling vaccination rates.
Molly was treated for tonsillitis two weeks before the holiday, her family said, which could have compromised her immune system.
Symptoms of mumps usually disappear after around a week. However, it can damage fertility in boys and can trigger meningitis. Dominique Bower, Molly’s aunt, said: ‘Molly’s face started getting more and more swollen when we got to Majorca.
‘By Tuesday evening she had started to be sick and go downhill. On the Wednesday a friend googled her symptoms and said she thought it was mumps.
‘All her symptoms showed it was mumps but the online advice just said to take ibuprofen and that was all we could do.
Miss Bower added: ‘During the Thursday evening she was delirious. She could not eat and kept on asking what we were saying. She would say that she could not hear us and complained that she was aching all over her body. The resort doctor touched her neck and immediately he said “mumps”. He suggested paracetamol and ibuprofen every six hours.
‘Within a few seconds of taking it, Molly drifted off to sleep. We later tried to wake her for a shower, we couldn’t get her to walk, it was like carrying a dead weight. I left the room for five minutes afterwards to get her more clothes and the next thing I knew I heard screaming [from a family friend].
‘Molly’s eyes had rolled into the back of her head and she had stopped breathing.’ Doctors tried to save the teenager for two hours before she was moved to hospital where doctors confirmed she had been struck down by mumps.
Her body is yet to be repatriated. A fundraising site, set up to help the family with funeral costs, has attracted more than £9,000.
Molly’s mother, Danielle Bower paid tribute to her daughter last night. ‘She was a fit and healthy young woman,’ she said. ‘Molly had such a dry sense of humour and was a really strong girl. She was an honest and loyal person with good manners. She loved to go out and socialise. She was really bubbly and just so beautiful.’
Donations can be made at: www.gofundmecom/f/jearzr-bringmolly