MMR vaccination & ITP in Adults

I posted in one of the other threads about my partner (malee76 here on the forums) being diagnosed recently with ITP. Turns out he had the MMR vaccine a couple years back, as it was required for him to work at a hospital.

I know that there is ample evidence to show that MMR vaccines can trigger ITP in children, and my understanding is that it usually presents shortly after the vaccine. What about in adults?

I'm wondering if this is something (the ITP) that could have been percolating in the couple years since the vaccination and only now, with numbers getting really low and symptoms appearing, we are finding out about it. Or, alternatively, perhaps it took longer for the ITP to develop? The notion that he's had ITP unknowingly for a couple years with no symptoms until now - if that is the case, maybe leads me to believe that he has the chance to again get the platelet's high enough to experience symptom-free living.

Any thoughts on this?

Bandit:

My thoughts - a person doesn't have ITP until platelets are below normal. Percolating doesn't count. Chances are, many people have something going on in their bodies that they don't know about, cancers, other autoimmune disorders, etc., but it doesn't matter until they are diagnosed.

Aquiring ITP can take one trigger or several triggers. It can be a cascade of things that can take years to finally show up. There is no way to know if your partners MMR was a trigger and even if you did know, there isn't a way to reverse that.

Having said that, it is entirely possible to achieve high platelets that can last a long time. At this point though, there is no way to predict whether or not that will happen for him. It could take weeks, months, years or never happen. The important thing to know is that even if it does not happen, he can still live a normal life. There are people here with the worst case scenario; low counts that do not respond to anything they have tried for years. Even those people go to work, have children, take vacations....they can do everything except extreme sports. There are some newer treatments that have made life better for even those people, so there is a LOT of hope that ITP will be something that is easily lived with and/or managed.

How ITP happened doesn't matter. AT first, we all look for cause, but eventually find out that there is no known cause and it doesn't really matter. It's here now.

There are a few cases of quinine-induced ITP and in that case, stopping the quinine will reverse the ITP. Sometimes it is caused by an herbal supplement, a medication, etc and if that is the case, stopping the drug may or may not make a difference.

This is a good explanation of ITP triggers if you can wrap your head around it:

www.pdsa.org/about-itp/causes.html

Sandi, thanks for the wise words. Just hard coming to grips with this, and the question of WHY is still hard to overcome. But you're right, in the end the WHY doesn't matter.

bandit [I have a friend who is also a bandit] - I know what triggered mine, to know it is to stay away from it. Mine was triggered by a gamma globulin injection - so I really don't want IVIg. After a stable count for 8+ years my count tanked after a tetanus booster - so my MD has it in my chart that I should not have another of those. It happened quickly too - no percolating

Your partner will do fine - takes time.

Well, why does my friend have breast cancer? Why does my daughter have Graves Disease? Why does my cousin have MS? No one can answer those questions, and we can't answer it about ITP either. Bad things happen to good people and all you can do is deal with it the best you can.

I've had two major platelet drops from Amoxicillin. I've stayed away from that antibiotic since...about 10 years now. I'm still thinking it could have been a coincidence, but it's easy just to take something else so I do. If you think you have a known trigger, eliminate it and see what happens. That's about all you can do.

Sorry if I seem blunt - it's not you. I tend to tell it like it is - straight and to the point. Occupational hazard. : )

Well said Sandi. No need to apologize for the bluntness, you're totally right.

And some good news this AM; my partner is at his 4th and final Rituxin treatment right now, his number was 10 this AM, which is really good for him. Was 5 last check a week ago, with no treatment in the interim. Hopefully the Rituxin will really kick in and kick him into high gear, and the Promacta is still coming.

Thanks Melinda I agree, he'll be fine. We're learning it takes time, for sure.

bandit my friend needed 8 infustions before her count began to increase - that was oh heavens maybe 4 years ago, her count went up and still is over 200,000. It was a gradual rise once it started.

Glad to hear things are going well.