L.A. child dies from complication of infant measles infection
A school -aged child in the County of Los Angeles died of a rare complication of measles after having contracted illness in early childhood, the public health service of the county announced on Thursday.
The Child – Who Was Not Old Enough to Be Vaccinated At The Time of Infection – Died from Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis, A Fatal Progressive Brain Disorder That Strikes Roughly 1 In 10,000 People Infectied with Measles in the US Doctors Believe the Risk Is As High As 1 in 600 children who contract measles as a baby.
The disorder generally develops two to 10 years after the initial infection, even when – as in the case of this child – the patient fully recovers from measles. The disease begins with convulsions, cognitive decline and involuntary muscle spasms, and progresses towards dementia, coma and possibly death.
“Most of the United States pediatricians have never seen a child with SSPE because we have vaccible children against measles for decades”, ” said Dr Adam RatnerA specialist in pediatric infectious disease based in New York and author of the book, “Booster Shots: The urgent lessons of measles and uncertain future of Children’s Health”.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has not been able to disclose more details on the age, sex or location of the child due to the laws on the privacy of patients, said a spokesperson.
The ministry could not confirm that the child acquired measles before becoming eligible for Ror vaccination.
“This affair is a painful reminder of the dangerous of measles, in particular for our most vulnerable community members,” said Dr. Muntu Davis, head of health of the county. “Infants too young to be vaccinated count on us all to help protect them through community immunity.”
Children generally receive their first dose MMR when they have 12 to 15 months and a second dose between 4 and 6 years old.
A first early dose of the age of 6 to 11 months is recommended for babies traveling internationally or through an international center. Infants under 6 months are too young to receive MMR, According to guidelines American centers for disease control and prevention.
Very young babies are counting on antibodies acquired during the gestation and immunity of the herd to protect them from measles, which killed around 400 children each year in the United States before the introduction of the ROR vaccine combined in 1971.
Measles was “eliminated” in the United States in 2000, which means that the disease was rare enough and immunity widespread to prevent local transmission if an wandering case appeared.
For 25 years, parents in the United States may have believed that the immunity of the herd will protect infants from measles until they are old enough to be vaccinated.
This recent death may be a signal that the social contract begins to break.
Infantile immunization rates have decreased slowly but regularly nationally, from 95% in the years preceding the pandemic cochem less than 93% During the 2023-24 school year.
In California, one of the five American states that has prohibited all exemptions from non -medical vaccines, this year’s vaccination rate was 96.2%. California is also one of the 10 states With a drop -down vaccination rate of kindergarten exceeding 95%thresholds, experts are necessary to reach the immunity of the herd.
But if the current vaccination rates remain stable in the coming decades, measles will be endemic in the United States again within 25 years, two researchers from the University of Stanford have found in a study Posted earlier this year.
“Right now, we should really try to increase vaccination rates”, ” Mathew KiangAn assistant professor of epidemiology and health of the population, told Times in April. “If we just keep them as they are, bad things will happen in about two decades.”
The staff writer Jenny Gold contributed to this report.
