A school-age child has died from a rare complication of measles contracted in infancy, Los Angeles County health officials said Thursday.
The child, who had been too young to be vaccinated when they were infected by the virus, died of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, according to the county health department. The incurable disorder causes progressive brain damage and is nearly universally fatal.
About 1 in 10,000 people who get measles develops the disorder, but the risk is 1 in 600 for infants.
They almost certainly caught it from someone who was old enough to have been vaccinated but wasn’t. If vaccination rates continue to decline like the current republican administration wants, more and more infants will contract measles even if their parents plan to vaccinate on schedule.
Exactly this, I was horrified when we had our first measles case in our state. Luckily, we were two days away from our MMR for our youngest. So, we just waited and didn’t leave the house. But this right here, is why EVERYONE WHO CAN SHOULD BE VACCINATED. Those who can’t will suffer, and they’ve done nothing wrong.