Measles can still harm health even years after an infection : Shots

Measles outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico currently represent nearly 300 reported cases, exceeding the total number of all-in-US in 2024.

Outbreaks take place in remote rural areas. There were some isolation Cases reported in 13 other states – It has nothing to do with the outbreak of Texas. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that risks remain low nationwide and vaccinations are key to prevention.

Still, doctors say it’s a good time to remember how dangerous and long-term the health effects of measles can be.

Doctor Alex Kubijanovic He has been a practical pediatrician for over 20 years. She says she is still troubled by the memories of the teenage boy she dealt with at the start of her Utah career.

The boy had contracted with seven months of measles when he was too young to receive the vaccine. “He got the virus from a child in a neighbour who hasn’t been vaccinated,” says Cvijanovich, who is currently practicing in New Mexico.

It was a relatively mild case of measles and the infant recovered. She says he grew up to be a healthy, bright child, or student of honor.

Later, in middle school, he began to develop troublesome symptoms. “He started to get lost between classes and lost as if he couldn’t find a class to go to,” says Cvijanovich.

Anxiously, the teenage parents took him to a series of doctors and realized what was wrong. Subacute sclerosing pan encephalitis, or SSPE. This is a degenerative neurological condition that normally develops 7-10 years after measles infection. It’s almost always fatal. Cvijanovich was part of the hospital team that confirmed the diagnosis.

“The problem is there is no treatment,” she says. “And he basically became more and more incapacitated over time.”

About 18 months after his initial diagnosis, the teenager died, she says.

SSPE was once considered very rare. But Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infection expert in New York City, writes the history of measles, saying that data from outbreaks in the US over the past decades suggests that this is not always the case.

“In some age groups, especially kids around the age of two, you can see that it’s much more common than we thought,” says Ratner.

For example, reviews of California measles case Between 1988 and 1991, cases of SSPE were found to occur frequently in every 1,367 cases of unvaccinated children under the age of 5. Another study examining the outbreak in the US between 1989 and 1991 showed that the proportion of SSPE was nearly One in 4,600 Measles case.

Vaccination prevents not only SSPE but other serious complications that measles can cause – such as pneumonia and severe brain swelling.

And there are common consequences from measles infections that you may not know: it can erase your immune memory.

“Not only does the brain have memories, but the immune system has memories of all pathogens that we have encountered in the past.” Stephen Eledgea professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical University, studying how the immune system reacts to pathogens.

Elledge says your immune system holds those memories, so the next time you encounter a virus, it knows how to fight it. However, measles can destroy the cells that hold those memories.

“And when you lose that memory, you are no longer immune to that particular pathogen,” he says. “The next time you get it, you have to fight that battle again.”

This effect is called immune amnesia. Eldge says that although the severity varies greatly, it can occur to some extent with each measles infection.

“So, every time you get measles, you lose some of your immune memory. And the more serious the case of measles, the longer it lasts, the more your immune system will be destroyed.”

In one study, Eldge and his colleagues found that unvaccinated children lost 11% to 73% of their antibodies, recognizing and neutralizing the virus and bacteria.

Other studies suggest that this can be done 2-3 years To restore the immune system. And during that time, children may remain vulnerable to infections from other diseases, including those previously immunized.

Researchers say immune amnesia helps explain one phenomenon recorded after the introduction of measles vaccines in the 1960s. Deaths from other pediatric diseases have decreased dramatically. Even deaths from diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea have been reduced in half.

Ratner says the US is likely to see a larger outbreak of measles as daily childhood vaccinations drop. “We’re sure to see the long-term outcomes of measles in the future,” he says.

But he says there are safe and powerful tools to prevent these outcomes – vaccines.