Measles complications in healthy kids surprise Pennsylvania physicians

Pediatric infectious disease specialists in Pennsylvania, home to the nation’s largest measles outbreak in more than three decades, are treating an influx of children with severe complications from a virus many physicians have little experience with, NBC News reported Oct. 14.

Patrick Gavigan, MD, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Penn State Health Golisano Children’s Hospital in Hershey, said he expected measles to behave like COVID-19 in children, mainly manifesting as respiratory illness and hitting those with underlying conditions hardest. Instead, the virus is causing serious complications beyond the lungs in many previously healthy children, including in the gut, liver and brain, according to the report.

For example, some children are developing encephalitis, or brain inflammation, in response to the virus, according to Dr. Gavigan.

“They go from walking and talking one day to the next having significant neurologic dysfunction,” he told NBC News. Dr. Gavigan added that these patients recover slowly and often aren’t back to normal by the time they leave the hospital.

Measles now takes up part of his team’s work almost every day, he said, including consults with emergency department physicians on suspected cases. He estimated that his team has cared for 20 children with measles complications in recent months.

“The learning curve has been steep,” Dr. Gavigan told NBC News, adding that his team has needed to consult a retired pediatric infectious disease physician with previous measles experience. 

No antiviral exists for measles, so care centers on oxygen, fluids and antibiotics for secondary infections. Dr. Gavigan’s team is also giving vitamin A in severe pneumonia cases.

Pennsylvania has confirmed at least 1,222 measles cases since the outbreak began in April — about a quarter of the national total this year. 

All of the children hospitalized with measles at Golisano Children’s have been unvaccinated, Dr. Gavigan said. 

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