Once SSPE develops, it moves through progressive stages, starting with mood swings, personality changes, depression, lethargy, and possibly fever and headache. This first stage can last up to six months. Then stage two involves jerking movement, spasms, loss of vision, dementia, and seizures. The third stage sees the jerking turn to writhing and rigidity. In the last stage, autonomic failure sets in—heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing become unregulated. Then comes coma and death. About 95 percent of SSPE cases are fatal.
Tragic ending
In the boy’s case, his parents don’t know when he was infected with measles. When doctors saw him, his parents recalled that in the prior
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