LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- After Los Angeles County Health officials announced the death of a school-aged child due to a rare measles complication, many want to know what SSPE is and the best strategies for preventing it. What's most alarming is how it can take root during the most vulnerable period in a child's life.

Between birth and 12 to 15 months, before a baby usually gets the measles vaccine, an infant is vulnerable.

"It's not really well understood how it happens, but it seems like somehow the measles virus stays latent in the brain," said Dr. Nava Yeganeh, the Medical Director for Vaccine Preventable Disease Control with the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

In very rare instances, she said an early-life measles infection can lead to a fatal progressive brain disorder called

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