L.A. child dies from complication of measles infection contracted in infancy

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A school-aged child in Los Angeles County has died from a rare complication of measles after contracting the disease in infancy, the county public health department announced Thursday.

The child — who was not old enough to be vaccinated at the time of infection — died from subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a fatal progressive brain disorder that strikes roughly one in 10,000 people infected with measles in the U.S. Doctors believe the risk is as high as one in every 600 children who contract measles as a baby.

The disorder typically develops two to 10 years after initial infection, even when — as in this child’s case — the patient recovers fully from measles. The disease beg