MORE than a quarter of a century after she first had measles - one of the most infectious diseases in the world - Stephanie Peters died from it.
She was 27, and the disease had already robbed her of her ability to see, walk, talk and feed herself.
Today, her mum Gail is urging parents to look at photos of her daughter, to read her story, and to vaccinate their children to spare themselves or another family the agony hers has gone through.
Gail’s plea comes as uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella jab is lower than it has been for more than a decade, with the last large outbreak in 2012.
The West Midlands is facing the biggest outbreak since the 1990s.
Gail, now 62, tells Sun Health she fears people are not taking the disease seriously enough.
She says: “This is not just a harmless childhood illness.
“Measles killed my daughter.
“If we could have stopped her getting measles, it would have saved her life.
“Getting your child vaccinated could save their life, and the more children vaccinated, the less likely this cruel disease will spread.”
“She was never in hospital or anything.
“She had it for about a week to ten days and that was it.”
Gail says her daughter initially recovered from measles well and grew up to be a “popular” and “chatty” child at school who loved to dance.
But in 1995, ten years later, Stephanie’s future would be ripped from her when she fell victim to gradually-progressing brain disease subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare complication of measles.
Over the following 17 years, Gail and her husband David, 64, saw their daughter slowly lose her mobility and fall into a vegetative state.
Stephanie died in 2013, from pneumonia caused by SSPE.
In the UK, one in every 25,000 unvaccinated children who catch measles will develop SSPE, which almost always results in death.
It happens when the measles virus infects the brain, where it can lie dormant for more than a decade.
SSPE causes memory loss, mood changes, muscle spasms and blindness.
Most people with this disease die between one and three years after diagnosis, when the brain stops being able to control vital organs.
There is no cure for SSPE, but it can be prevented with the MMR jab.
The first signs are typically changes in behaviour, including failing school work or irritability.
Gail initially noticed her child became “subdued” at ten years old, and she says: “Her zest for life wasn’t the same as before.”
Then her vision blurred and she became confused by simple tasks.
Gail says: “She stopped being able to put on her socks, yet she could still tie up her shoelaces.
“She knew how to clean her teeth, but could not work out how to put toothpaste on the brush. Her writing also got very big, so we thought she needed glasses and got her eyes tested.”
Stephanie’s symptoms persisted and she was referred to Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, where she rapidly deteriorated over six weeks.
Read more: www.thesun.co.uk/health/25739...
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Негізгі бет Ғылым және технология Measles killed my daughter 3 decades after she caught the bug
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