Heartbreaking video shows a deadly risk of skipping measles vaccine

As soon as SSPE has developed, it moves through progressive phases, starting with mood swings, personality changes, depression, lethargy and possibly fever and headache. This first phase can take up to six months. Then the second stage includes the jerking of movement, cramps, visual loss, dementia and seizures. In the third stage, the jerky turning and rigidity changes. In the last stage, autonomous failure begins – the heart rate, blood pressure and breathing are not regulated. Then coma and death comes. About 95 percent of the SSPE cases are fatal.

Tragic end

In the case of the boy, his parents do not know when he was infected with measles. When the doctors saw him, his parents remembered that in the past six months he achieved jerky movements, falls and a progressive cognitive decline. Previously, he had been healthy at the birth and had hit all of his development milestones.

In a way, his decline was an unmistakable case of SSPE. The imaging showed lesions in his brain. He had increased anti-gravity antibodies in his cerebrospinal fluid. Electroencephalography (EEG) showed brain waves that are compatible with SSPE. Then of course there was the jerky movements and the cognitive decline.

However, what noticed was his rolling and swirling eyes. Visual problems are not unusual for SSPE – sometimes the condition damages the retina and/or the optic nerve. Some patients develop a full loss of vision. In the case of the boy, however, he developed fast, repetitive, unpredictable, multidirectional eye movements, an illness that is referred to as an opsoco. Doctors often see it in brain cancer patients, but brain inflammation through some infections can also cause movements. Experts assume that the basic cause is a loss of specialized neurons involved in coordinated movements, namely Purkinje cells and omnipause.

The boy's neurologists believe that this was the first time that opsoclonus is associated with SSPE, caught on video. They treated the boy with an antiviral medication and medication to reduce cramps, but his condition worsened.