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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...plication-killed-patients-years-later-n674706
Oct 28 2016, 3:47 pm ET
Fatal Measles Complication Killed Patients Years Later
by Maggie Fox
A deadly measles complication that kills kids years after they seemingly recover may not be as rare as doctors thought, researchers said Friday.
The fatal and incurable complication has killed at least 16 California adults and children, the researchers in Los Angeles and San Francisco said.
They say they're afraid the condition is far more common than anyone thought, and say it strongly reinforces the need for vaccinating every single child who can be.
"This is really frightening," said Dr. James Cherry of the University of California, Los Angeles medical school.
The victims all had a condition called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis or SSPE. It's caused when the measles virus stays in the brain, usually for years, after a young child is infected and has recovered.
For reasons that no one understands, it can reawaken and causes an immune response that leads to seizures, coma and death. There's no treatment and no one has been known to survive it.
""It takes having had measles many years before.""
Once thought very rare, a recent study in Germany and now the California study suggest SSPE is far more common than previously believed. Original estimates suggested it affected 1 in 100,000 kids, but in the California cases 1 in 600 people who got measles as infants developed SSPE, the researchers said.
They said 1 in 1,400 kids under 5 who got measles developed SSPE.
"Not only is SSPE still here and still diagnosed but it actually may be more common than we thought it was," said Dr. Gary Marshall of the University of Louisville School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study...
Oct 28 2016, 3:47 pm ET
Fatal Measles Complication Killed Patients Years Later
by Maggie Fox
A deadly measles complication that kills kids years after they seemingly recover may not be as rare as doctors thought, researchers said Friday.
The fatal and incurable complication has killed at least 16 California adults and children, the researchers in Los Angeles and San Francisco said.
They say they're afraid the condition is far more common than anyone thought, and say it strongly reinforces the need for vaccinating every single child who can be.
"This is really frightening," said Dr. James Cherry of the University of California, Los Angeles medical school.
The victims all had a condition called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis or SSPE. It's caused when the measles virus stays in the brain, usually for years, after a young child is infected and has recovered.
For reasons that no one understands, it can reawaken and causes an immune response that leads to seizures, coma and death. There's no treatment and no one has been known to survive it.
""It takes having had measles many years before.""
Once thought very rare, a recent study in Germany and now the California study suggest SSPE is far more common than previously believed. Original estimates suggested it affected 1 in 100,000 kids, but in the California cases 1 in 600 people who got measles as infants developed SSPE, the researchers said.
They said 1 in 1,400 kids under 5 who got measles developed SSPE.
"Not only is SSPE still here and still diagnosed but it actually may be more common than we thought it was," said Dr. Gary Marshall of the University of Louisville School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study...