Key result
A 27-month-old boy developed fatal measles pneumonia during severe hemorrhagic varicella, likely due to a severe ventilation-perfusion deficit from the combined viral infections.
Case Report (n=1)
A rare case of fatal concurrent measles and varicella pneumonia in a child, hypothesized to be due to severe ventilation-perfusion deficit and ineffective interferon protection.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Alerts clinicians to fatal measles-varicella co-infection risk in toddlers; leaves open mechanisms of dual viral pneumonia and interferon failure.
A 27-month-old boy developed fatal measles pneumonia during the course of severe hemorrhagic varicella with pulmonary involvement. His humoral antibody response to both viruses was normal. Neither historical nor histologic evidence suggests any defect of cellular immunity. It is hypothesized that interferon, produced during the first (varicella) infection, was not effective in protecting against the second (measles) virus because of its limited location in relation to the timing and progression of the latter illness. It is probable that the ventilation-perfusion deficit, resulting from the combined effect of the two viral infections, was severe enough to cause death.
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Louis A. Lobes (1973) conducted a case report in Fatal measles pneumonia and chickenpox pneumonia (n=1). Measles and varicella co-infection was evaluated on Death. A 27-month-old boy developed fatal measles pneumonia during severe hemorrhagic varicella, likely due to a severe ventilation-perfusion deficit from the combined viral infections.
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