Complications in Measles With Special Reference to Encephalitis

In the 15‐year period 1948–1962 4874 patients were hospitalised in the City and County of Copenhagen with measles. All the case reports have been studied concerning complications and mortality rate, special attention being paid to the incidence and the prognosis of encephalitis. The patients surviving from encephalitis have been followed‐up. The most severe complications were, as expected, pneumonia and encephalitis. Pneumonia was found in 1268 patients; 12 of these patients died. Encephalitis was found in 68 cases, among which six deaths. Before the new therapeutic principles dating from the great polio epidemic in 1952, five of 21 patients died from encephalitis, but after that time only one of 47 patients died. Of the survivors from encephalitis 59 (95%) were followed‐up 3–16 years after the disease: three suffered from grave defects, 16 had mild defects and 40 had recovered completely. The frequency of encephalitis was 0.43%‰ of the notified cases of measles in the period of investigation. Among the admitted patients 22 died (4.5%‰). The mortality rate in the notified cases was only 0.14%‰. Encephalitis is a rare complication in measles and, concerning mortality rate and sequelae, is not so severe as considered previously.