New research on fatal measles complications shows how the failure to vaccinate not only endangers the patient, but also everyone else susceptible to the disease.
Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a neurological disorder that can develop years after someone has measles, and it is fatal 100% of the time. Previously it was thought rare at about one in 100,000 post-measles cases. But recent research in Germany shows that it occurs in one in 1,700 children infected with measles before they turned five, and a new study finds the incidence can be as many as one in 600 for infants who contract measles before they’re vaccinated.
