Doctors warn of 'frightening' measles complication that can strike a decade after initial infection
CBC
As Alberta's measles case counts soar, doctors and scientists are warning parents about the long-term and lesser-known complications of measles.
And they can be deadly.
As of midday Wednesday Alberta had reported a total of 749 cases since the outbreaks began in March.
What many parents may not realize is that a rare and debilitating neurological condition, called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) can develop long after a child recovers from measles.
"It just frightens the heck out of me," said Dr. Sam Wong, an Edmonton-based pediatrician and president of the section of pediatrics with the Alberta Medical Association.
"Thankfully it doesn't happen very often but, when it does, it's devastating."
Most people can clear the measles virus once their infection is over.
But in some very young children, or people who are immune-suppressed, the virus hides out in brain cells and develops mutations that allow it to stay invisible to the immune system, according to Dawn Bowdish, a professor of immunology at McMaster University.
It can eventually flare up, causing brain inflammation, causing children or young adults to lose the ability to move and speak.
"It starts destroying the cells of the brain — there's no treatment, there's no way to repair a broken brain — and so eventually they can end up in a coma and then they will die of it," said Bowdish.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, SSPE occurs in between four and 11 out of every 100,000 measles cases.
Health officials say it strikes between seven and 11 years after an initial infection and the highest rates are among children who contract measles before the age of two.
"One of the reasons we're so universally stating that people need to be vaccinated is because some of these long-term effects are just so grim," said Bowdish.
Alberta's routine childhood immunization schedule recommends babies receive two doses of measles vaccine, with the first administered at 12 months and the second at 18 months.
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