Deadly measles complication affects more kids than previously thought –study
A fatal complication of measles, the neurological disorder subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), which affects patients years after infection may be more common the doctors previously thought, according to a study that stressed the importance of vaccinations against the highly contagious disease.
The risk of acquiring SSPE was previously believed to be about 1-in-1,700, based on an earlier German study of children younger than five years old infected with measles.
The new study looked at children who got measles during a large California outbreak around 1990, and found the rate of SPPE to be 1-in-1,387 for kids under the age of five and rose to about 1-in-600 for babies infected before their first birthday.
Findings were presented at an infectious disease meeting in New Orleans known as ID Week.The presentation included an account of a mother whose five-month-old got measles after a trip to Disneyland during an outbreak last year.
Dr. James Cherry, a research professor in pediatric infectious diseases at UCLA, who was part of the study team, described the findings as a “very frightening surprise”.
Dr. Cherry recommended creating herd immunity through vaccination to protect those who are most vulnerable to measles and those at greatest risk of SSPE. Herd immunity would protect infants too young to get the measles vaccine and people with compromised immune systems ineligible for vaccination.
Merck & Co and Glaxo Smith Kline are among the main manufacturers of measles vaccines.
Researchers hope the data will raise alarms with parents who refuse vaccines for their children, despite science confirming their safety and benefits.
They also cautioned parents about traveling with unprotected children to countries where measles is endemic, saying that children should have had two doses of measles vaccine before traveling to Europe or the Philippines.
The average age of SSPE diagnosis was 12, but the range was from three to 35, researchers said. Even without the SSPE complication, measles is still a fatal disease. It also causes encephalitis, an acute infection and inflammation of the brain.
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