Another Child Has Died From a Complication of Measles This Past Year
SSPE is a late complication of measles that is always fatal.
In addition to the two unvaccinated children who died with measles in Texas and the unvaccinated child who died with SSPE in California, there are other, newer reports of children with SSPE, a late complication of measles.
Another Child Has Died From a Complication of Measles This Past Year
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine last month, a child died quickly after he was diagnosed with SSPE at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California.
“A 7-year-old boy with a 3-month history of cognitive deterioration and seizures was brought to a tertiary pediatric hospital. He had contracted measles at 7 months of age while living in Afghanistan, where measles is endemic… The condition is fatal. The primary way to prevent measles infection and its neurologic sequelae is vaccination. Twelve months after the initial onset of symptoms, the patient died.”
Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis after Measles Infection
So why haven’t you heard much about this child’s death?
“The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health encourages residents to make sure that all members of their families are protected against measles following the recent tragic death of a school-aged LA County resident from a complication of measles infection acquired during infancy. The child was originally infected with measles as an infant before they were eligible to receive the measles vaccine which is routinely recommended to be administered between 12 and 15 months. Although they recovered from the initial measles illness, the child developed and ultimately died from subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE)—a rare but universally fatal complication that can occur in individuals who had measles early in life.”
Public Health Reminds Residents About the Importance of Measles Vaccination Following the Death of a Child from a Measles-Related Complication
I can only guess because it was already reported a bit last year. The case report with the 8-year-old LA County child who died with SSPE last September is the same child, despite an article in The New York Post that there was another child with SSPE in Los Angeles.
But still, it isn’t the only case.
“Shortly after Yeganeh’s group published the news release in California, Nelson was working to get the word out, too.
He had recently seen a 5-year-old whose family had traveled to the U.S. for medical care after the child started stumbling, jerking, hallucinating about bugs and animals and having seizures. The child had contracted measles as an infant and had been too young to be vaccinated. Nelson diagnosed the child with SSPE.
“Imagine that: Having a child who is healthy and happy, moving to talking less and less, eventually not able to walk,” Nelson said. “It’s a very sad thing.”
Doctors warn of a deadly complication from measles outbreaks
It seems like yet another child was recently diagnosed with SSPE, in addition to the case in California.
And with rising measles case counts the last few years, tragically, we can almost certainly expect even more SSPE deaths in the next few years, especially in New York, Texas, and South Carolina.
After all, we have seen it before.
Studies have shown that in addition to all the deaths during the large measles outbreaks in the United States from 1989 to 1991, there followed a lot of deaths from SSPE.
“The SSPE cases of the patients listed in table 1 were associated with measles virus infection that occurred during the 1989– 1991 measles epidemic, because all of these patients with SSPE were born and resided in the United States during 1989–1991 and because the brain tissue samples obtained from these patients yielded virus sequences that corresponded to the wild-type measles virus genotype associated with the outbreak (i.e., genotype D3), thus confirming that the patients developed SSPE as a result of an undiagnosed infection with measles virus that occurred during the epidemic.”
Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis: more cases of this fatal disease are prevented by measles immunization than was previously recognized
We have found similar clusters of SSPE following measles outbreaks in:
the UK - hundreds of cases of SSPE, with cases dropping as they introduced a measles vaccine
Germany - dozens of cases of SSPE followed their measles outbreaks in the 1990s
Japan - hundreds of cases of SSPE followed large measles outbreaks in the 1960s and 70s
And no, these cases of SSPE were not caused by the measles vaccine! All the cases had an outbreak strain when tested on autopsy.
“SSPE demonstrates the high human cost of "natural" measles immunity.”
Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis: The Devastating Measles Complication That Might Be More Common Than Previously Estimated
What else should you know about SSPE?
Like measles, SSPE was going away as we got more and more people vaccinated and protected.
However, know that like measles, SSPE will come roaring back as more and more people choose to intentionally skip getting vaccinated and protected.
But what about the argument that mothers would have passed on protection to these infants through their breastmilk if they themselves had natural immunity, preventing these SSPE deaths?
Well, as you can see from the chart above, SSPE deaths were much higher in the pre-vaccine era! Natural immunity and breastfeeding didn’t protect kids from SSPE then, and it won’t protect them now.
The idea that SSPE is a vaccine injury also doesn’t hold up.
Again, look at the above chart.
Those are SSPE cases in children and adults from before we even had measles vaccines! Plus there are all the studies that report wild type virus when they do autopsies on people who die with SSPE.
SSPE is a complication of a natural measles infection.
A complication, like measles encephalitis, that you can help avoid by getting your kids vaccinated with age appropriate doses of the MMR vaccine.
More on SSPE
Doctors warn of a deadly complication from measles outbreaks
High risk of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis following measles outbreaks in Georgia
The upsurge of SSPE--a reflection of national measles immunization status in Pakistan
Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis Surveillance — United States 1982