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.
This is a disease which ravages kids instead of the middle aged and up, and diabetics. As such, people will care more.
The future cognitive dissonance will likely be “if only we had a safe and effective vaccine for measles”, because to admit we already do would be tantamount to admitting guilt re your kid’s death.