THE outcome is simple. A child who isn’t vaccinated will be susceptible to
measles, mumps and rubella. All three can have serious complications. The main
one is encephalitis, where the virus gets into the brain.
The risk of encephalitis is around 1 per 1000 cases for measles and for
mumps, and around 1 per 6000 for rubella. Up to 50 per cent of children who get
encephalitis are left with permanent brain damage.
Measles kills around 1 in 5000 children in developed countries, and can also
cause SSPE (subacute sclerosing pan-encephalitis) in around 1 in 14,000 cases.
SSPE progressively…
