Los Angeles child dies from rare measles complication years after recovery | Mary Beth Miotto, MD, MPH

What does it mean when we talk about a rare complication of an infectious disease? Our brains don't do probability and risk very well. Ask 4 people near you right now to estimate a rare complication. What answer do you get? One in 10,000 individuals who get measles will eventually develop & die of SSPE. Pretty uncommon. BUT one in 600 children under a year-old who RECOVER from measles will develop SSPE & die in their school age years. One in 600. Not so rare. "About 1 in 10,000 people with measles later develop SSPE — but among those who are infected as infants, the risk is around 1 in 600, according to the Los Angeles health department." There were 1200+ US measles cases this year so far. So one in 600 -not so rare. Over 3900 measles cases so far 2025 in Mexico (and a number of deaths). 1 in 600-not all that rare. There were >4000 Canadian measles cases this year so far. How many cases were infants? What will this look like in 10 years? Another fact: Infants are much more likely to be hospitalized with pneumonia secondary to measles. 1 in 20 people infected with measles will get pneumonia . Pneumonia is much more likely to have immediate short and long-term bad effects in infants. #ThinkOfTheBabies #ConsiderTheSchoolKids #VaccinateYourFamily #VaccinationCausesAdults