Measles complication killed my daughter years later, warns British mother

Rebecca Archer's five-month-old daughter Renae contracted measles in 2013 during an outbreak in England. Too young to be vaccinated, Renae recovered from the initial illness, but the measles virus remained dormant in her body.

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your child could die without a jab.

For nearly a decade, Renae lived a seemingly normal life, described as "kind" and "bubbly." However, the virus silently replicated in her brain, leading to severe seizures and behavioral changes by age 11. Doctors initially suspected epilepsy, but Renae's condition worsened, marked by headaches, hallucinations, and a decline in her physical strength.

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In the July before her 11th birthday, I got a call from the school to say she'd had a seizure.

After months of hospitalization and numerous tests, doctors finally diagnosed Renae with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare and fatal complication of measles that typically manifests seven to 10 years after the initial infection. The diagnosis came just days before her death in September 2023, after a lumbar puncture confirmed the persistent presence of the measles virus.

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She was just getting weaker. She was struggling to keep her eyes open; she slowly stopped eating.

Now heavily pregnant, Rebecca is sharing her story as a grave warning to parents. With declining vaccination rates contributing to outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles and diphtheria in Britain, Australia, and the United States, she emphasizes that a childhood infection can have devastating, long-term consequences, even leading to death.

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The disease is a rare but progressive and fatal complication of measles and usually takes seven-to-10 years to produce symptoms.