South Carolina measles outbreak reaches 876 cases, causing brain swelling in children amid declining vaccination rates nationwide.
Columbia: South Carolina doctors are seeing very sick children with measles. Some are getting swelling in their brains. This is a serious problem called encephalitis (en-sef-uh-LYE-tis).
Encephalitis happens in some children who get measles. Ten to fifteen out of one hundred children with this brain swelling die. One woman who manages disease for South Carolina said the swelling can make children have trouble learning or using their bodies normally.
Nineteen children have gone to the hospital in South Carolina. Some got pneumonia (noo-MOAN-yuh), which is when the lungs fill with fluid. Pneumonia is the main reason children die from measles. Some pregnant women were near sick people and needed special medicine to protect them.
The MMR vaccine prevents measles. More parents are getting their children vaccinated now. In January, seventy-two percent more children got the MMR shot compared to last year. Experts say vaccines are the best way to keep children safe from this disease.