Measles is unlike other viruses: What to know about long-term complications

Measles isn’t just a rash and a fever.

The disease outbreak in West Texas that continues to grow has sent 29 people, most of them small children, to the hospital. Two people have died, including a 6-year-old child.

It’s not yet known how many people have gotten sick in the outbreak — there are at least 223 confirmed cases, but experts believe hundreds more people may have been infected since late January. As public health officials try to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus, some experts are worried about longer-term complications.

Measles is unlike other childhood viruses that come and go. In severe cases it can cause pneumonia. About 1 in 1,000 patients develops encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and there are 1 or 2 deaths per 1,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus can wipe out the immune system, a complication called “immune amnesia.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/measles-immune-system-brain-swelling-long-term-rcna195918

Which is why for the rest of one year, my brothers and I got everything that came down the pike, including, in very short order, rubella, mumps, and strep (we'd already had chicken pox, or we would have got that too!)