[DanBC]

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Measles/Pages/Complications.asp...

1 in 5000 people who get measles will die.

The "uncommon" (for medication side effects "uncommon" means between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1000 people get the side effect; "rare" means that between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 people are affected and "very rare" means that fewer than one in 10,000 people are affected -- I don't know if this is the same for disease complications).

Uncommon:

liver infection (hepatitis)

misalignment of the eyes (squint), if the virus affects the nerves and muscles of the eye

*infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) and infection of the brain itself (encephalitis)

These seem pretty severe, especially since they're mostly avoidable.

EDIT:

> possible that some of the guests could be people from countries which don't vaccinate for measles?

Which countries would they be? Measles immunisation covers 80% of children under 1 year old.

http://www.who.int/immunization/programmes_systems/en/

> assuming that the strain of the current measles outbreak is the same one prevented by the vaccine

Are you saying the Edmonson strain doesn't protect against current strains? Or are you making shit up?

[transfire]

However it is more complicated than this, b/c the majority of people that do get the measles and die from it typically already have other health problems. Recently my niece got the measles --a "breakout case" from the vaccination itself actually. I was very concerned b/c I thought if they expect everyone to get vaccinated it must be pretty deadly. The doctor said otherwise. Because she was perfectly healthy in all other respects, there was no cause for concern.