Risk from measles (statistics)

1982 (USA):
"Measles............Encephalitis occurs in approximately 1 of every 2,000 reported cases; survivors often have permanent brain damage and mental retardation. Death, predominantly from respiratory and neurologic causes, occurs in 1 of every 3,000 reported measles cases. The risk of death is known to be greater for infants and adults than for children and adolescents. "---CDC/ACIP 1982 http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001090.htm

1989 (UK):
  "When the Department of Health ran its last major vaccine drive in 1989, Dr Norman Begg, consultant epidemiologist of the Public Health Laboratory Service, cited the then official statistics that one in 5,000 children contracting wild measles will develop acute encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain: and one in 5,000 of those will develop SSPE (sub-acute scierosing panencephalitis), an almost inevitably fatal progressive disease which causes hardening of the brain."--Lynne McTaggart

1996 (UK)
"The risk of developing encephalitis after MMR is about 1 child in a million. This is lower than the risk of developing encephalitis in the general population without the vaccine. The risk of a child developing encephalitis after having measles is about 1 in 5,000 and 1/3 of these children will be left with permanent brain damage."--Health Education Authority 1996

1997 (USA):
From the Red Book, the American Academy of Pediatrics book about infectious disease in the measles section (1997 edition): Acute encephalitis, which frequently results in permanent brain damage, occurs in approximately 1 of every 1000 cases. Death, predominately due to respiratory and neurological complications, occurs in 1 to 2 of every 1000 cases reported in the United States. Case-fatality rates are increased immunocomprimised children, including those with leukemia and HIV infection. . . ."---
Jeffrey P. Utz, M.D.

1994:
        "Five years later when one columnist encouraged parents to have their children re-vaccinated in the countrywide measles campaign, the percentage of measles victims who might go on to develop encephalitis had shrunk to one in every 500. One in 10 of these will die and one in four will suffer permanent brain damage, the columnist maintained. As the campaign intensified, other newspapers had magnified the danger even further. By November it seemed that one out of every 17 cases of measles would turn into a case of encephalitis."--McTaggart   Editor WDDTY www.wddty.co.uk

"Doctors maintain that the inoculation is necessary to prevent measles encephalitis, which they say occurs about once in 1,000 cases. After decades of experience with measles, I question this statistic, and so do many other pediatricians. The incidence of 1/1,000 may be accurate for children who live in conditions of poverty and malnutrition, but in the middle-and upper-income brackets, if one excludes simple sleepiness from the measles itself, the incidence of true encephalitis is probably more like 1/10,900 or 1/100,000."--Dr Robert Mendelsohn M.D.

News 8/99: Dr. Paul Lewis, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health Sciences University and a specialist in infectious diseases, said measles is a "serious disease" with complications that include severe pneumonia and encephalitis, an infection of the covering of the brain or spinal cord. Just how serious? For every thousand people who get measles, one to two die and one has lifelong neurological disorders. Lewis estimates that without measles vaccinations, 40 to 80 young Oregonians would die and another 40 would have neurological impairment. Measles outbreak

"But the report of the journal geared specifically for the study of the fatal illness being worried over, the SSPE Registry, concluded that the measles-induced form of this disease is "very rare", occurring in one per million cases (J of the Amer Med Assoc, 1972: 220:. 959-62). Furthermore, a study of 52 people with SSPE concluded that environmental factors other than measles, such as head injuries or close exposure to certain animals, played an important part in the onset of the disease (Amer J of Epid, 1980: iii: 415-24). "There were no differences with regard to the average age at vaccination, having received more than one measles vaccination, or having received measles vaccine after natural measles," concluded the authors."---Lynne McTaggart, WDDTY.  www.wddty.co.uk

SSPE from measles vaccine

Vaccine hurts 1 child in 15,000, or 100,000, or 300,000, or....(Fresno Bee, DPT report  1984)

What is the rate of post-vaccinial encephalitis?

"After frightening you with the unlikely possibility of measles encephalitis, your doctor can rarely be counted on to tell you of the dangers associated with the vaccine he uses to prevent it. The measles vaccine is associated with encephalopathy and with a series of other complications such as SSPE (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis), which causes hardening of the. brain and is in-variably fatal.
        Other neurologic and sometimes fatal conditions associated with the measles vaccine include ataxia (inability to coordinate muscle movements), mental retardation, aseptic meningitis, seizure disorders, and hemiparesis (paralysis affecting one side of the body). Secondary complications associated with the vaccine may be even more frightening. They include encephalitis, juvenile-onset diabetes, Reye's syndrome, and multiple sclerosis."--Dr Mendelsohn MD.

Labauge R, et al. Postvaccinal encephalitis in adult. A case with anatomo-clinical report. Rev Neurol (Paris). 1979;135(11):803-13. French. PMID: 45321; UI: 81125716.The case reported concerns a man of 27 years who presented 10 days after a polyvaccination (7 vaccines in 2 months) altered consciousness, epileptic fits, right hemiplegia, vegetative dysfunctions and meningeal status. Evolutionary clinical course led to death in 21 days. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=45321&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b

Klingmuller G. [Smallpox vaccinations and post-vaccinal encephalitis]. Med Welt. 1965 Jul 17;29:1653-4. German. No abstract available.PMID: 4378496; UI: 66004721. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&uid=4378496&dopt=m&dispmax=20

Vich V. [Contribution on the problem of allergic cerebral edema, following smallpox vaccination, that imitates post-vaccinal encephalitis].  Z Arztl Fortbild (Jena). 1968 Nov 1;62(21):1183-5. German. No abstract available. PMID: 4389294; UI: 69219963.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=4389294&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b

Ehrengut W. [Diabetes mellitus from post-vaccinal encephalitis]? Dtsch Med Wochenschr. 1970 May 15;95(20):1135. German. No abstract available. PMID: 4392770; UI: 70188407. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=4392770&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b

Sen Gupta PN, et al. Post-vaccinal encephalitis. Report of a case. Indian J Pediatr. 1975 Dec;42(335):356-7. No abstract available. PMID: 6390; UI: 76212084.