IDAI Warns of Dangerous Measles Complications: Pneumonia, Seizures and Permanent Brain Damage
Measles is often mistakenly regarded as a mild childhood infection that resolves on its own. However, the Indonesian Child Doctors Association (IDAI) warns that beneath the symptoms of fever and rash, measles carries serious risks of complications that can cause permanent disability and death.
Anggraini Alam, Head of IDAI West Java and Member of the IDAI Infection and Tropical Disease Working Unit, stressed that dismissing measles as a common ailment is a dangerous misconception. “Measles is sometimes thought to be just mild, just fever with a rash,” she said at an IDAI media briefing on Saturday, 28 February.
According to her, measles complications can affect various organs in children. One of the most frequent is lung infection or pneumonia. In fact, the majority of children hospitalised for measles experience lung involvement. “It is reported that 77 per cent of children admitted to hospital with measles have lung involvement,” Anggraini stated.
Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in measles cases. She noted that approximately 86 per cent of measles-related deaths are associated with this complication. In severe cases, patients may require mechanical ventilation support due to respiratory distress.
Beyond attacking the lungs, measles can also cause ear damage that risks permanent hearing loss if the eardrum is damaged. The infection can also trigger severe diarrhoea leading to dehydration and death if not treated quickly.
Other effects are seen on children’s eye health due to decreased vitamin A levels in the body. In certain cases, this condition can cause corneal drying and blindness.
The most dangerous complication occurs when the virus attacks the central nervous system. Measles infection can cause brain inflammation or encephalitis, which triggers seizures, coma and death in a short period.
“This also includes seizures. It is said that out of every 100 people with measles, some will experience seizures. Of course, this is not typical febrile seizures. It can very well be because the measles virus reaches the brain, which can cause death,” she explained.
Long-term effects of measles can emerge years after the initial infection. One of the feared complications is Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis (SSPE), a progressive nervous disorder that can develop some years later and is fatal.
Anggraini explained that children with nervous system complications from measles typically show symptoms of declining learning ability and movement disorders before eventually experiencing progressive deterioration. “SSPE is not immediate, but later. It is even said it can occur 23 years after getting measles,” she said.
Additionally, measles is known to cause immunological amnesia, a condition where the child’s immune system loses its memory of previously fought infections. As a result, children become more susceptible to various other diseases for months to years after recovery from measles.
Children with malnutrition, those who have not received vaccination, or those with comorbidities are identified as populations at highest risk of severe complications from this infection.
Given the high potential for these complications, IDAI emphasises the importance of prevention through vaccination to protect children from both short-term and long-term effects of measles.