Los Angeles child dies from rare measles complication years after recovery

A child’s school child in Los Angeles died of a rare complication of measles, years after being infected with the virus.

The Los Angeles County Health Department announced the death on Thursday, part of a warning to residents of the importance of being vaccinated.

The department said that the child had measles as an infant before they were eligible for their first washing out of measles-rumps-rublla (MMR). The first dose must be given to babies at 12 to 15 months, followed by a second to 4 to 6 years.

The child has recovered, but years later developed a rare progressive brain disorder known as the sububigular sclerosing panenéphalitis (SSPE), said the ministry. The condition can occur in people who had measles early in life, generally about 2 to 10 years after the initial infection.

“This case is a painful reminder of the dangerous of measles, in particular for our most vulnerable members of the community,” said Dr. Munu Davis, the Health of Health of the County of Los Angeles, in a press release.

“Vaccination is not only to protect you-it is a question of protecting your family, your neighbors, and in particular children too young to be vaccinated,” he said.

According to the Los Angeles health service, around 1 in 10,000 people.

The condition affects the central nervous system, so that people can undergo convulsions or lose the ability to walk before falling into a coma or a vegetative state. There is no known remedy or effective treatment for disorder, and most patients die in one to three years of diagnosis.

At the national level, measles vaccination rates have dropped in recent years. In the United States, less than 93% of kindergarten children received the two recommended doses during the 2023-24 school year (a rate of 95% is generally necessary to limit spread).

This year has marked the worst epidemic since the United States eliminated the disease in 2000. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recorded 1,454 cases since the start of the year, exceeding a previous record in 2019, driven by an epidemic in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York with low vaccination rates.

The high number of cases this year has been largely fueled by an epidemic in a Mennonite community in western Texas, which also has low vaccination rates. Two unvaccinated children from the community died earlier in the year, as is an adult not vaccinated in new-mexic, marking the first deaths of the country’s measles in a decade.

The Texas Department of Health declared the end of the western Texas epidemic in mid-August, and the weekly cases in the United States have generally decreased. However, there are still ongoing epidemics – including one during an event in the Utah high school – making measles a persistent threat to non -vaccinated people.

Two plans of the ROR vaccine are 97% effective against measles and generally offer life protection.

Public health experts claim that the challenge of mastering measles this year has been aggravated by the disinformation of the health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. although Kennedy called on people to obtain the MMR vaccine, he wrongly claimed that the immunity of vaccine vehicle treatments such as steroids frightened as a personal choice.

Kennedy also played the role of vitamin A during the Texas epidemic, even if it is not a treatment for the disease and it is not clear to what extent it is beneficial for patients outside the developing countries, where vitamin A deficiencies are common. Too much of this can also be harmful: doctors in western Texas reported earlier this year that some unvaccinated patients have shown signs of liver damage by excess vitamin A.