{"id":23948,"date":"2025-03-14T08:02:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T09:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23948"},"modified":"2025-03-14T09:35:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T09:35:19","slug":"measles-can-damage-the-immune-system-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23948","title":{"rendered":"Measles Can Damage the Immune System for Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An infection can also leave children and adults with other long-term health problems.<\/p>\n

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As more measles cases emerge around the country<\/a>, doctors say they\u2019re concerned that those infected may be at risk of long-term health complications.<\/p>\n

A bout of measles sends the immune system into shock, demolishing critical cells that help our bodies respond to threats. This can leave people extremely susceptible to other pathogens for weeks after an infection.<\/p>\n

The virus also attacks the immune system\u2019s memory cells. These cells remember and recognize the pathogens you\u2019ve encountered over the course of your life and protect against them, said Dr. Michael Mina, a former professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who has studied measles and immunity. Scientists call the phenomenon \u201cimmune amnesia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone who gets sick from measles will experience some level of immune amnesia, Dr. Mina said. This happens on a spectrum. For some people, it might mean that coming down with the flu will keep them in bed for an extra day or two, he said. But others may lose far more immunity and wind up getting seriously sick from the viruses they encounter. This immune amnesia can last for around three years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cA real concern is you\u2019re not just going to get measles and get sick, but within the next couple of years, your kid\u2019s going to be really vulnerable to a lot of other stuff,\u201d said Dr. Aaron Milstone, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children\u2019s Center.<\/p>\n

Measles can also cause severe, long-term complications. About one in 1,000 children who develop measles will experience brain swelling, which can cause hearing and vision loss, intellectual disabilities and permanent brain damage. And people of any age who are immunocompromised<\/a> are at greater risk for developing a specific type of brain swelling<\/a> that can occur for up to a year after they recover, said Dr. Milstone.<\/p>\n

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An infection can also leave children and adults with other long-term health problems.As more measles cases emerge around the country, doctors say they\u2019re concerned that those infected may be at risk of long-term health complications.A bout of measles sends the immune system into shock, demolishing critical cells that help our bodies respond to threats. This can leave people extremely susceptible to other pathogens for weeks after an infection.The virus also attacks the immune system\u2019s memory cells. These cells remember and recognize the pathogens you\u2019ve encountered over the course of your life and protect against them, said Dr. Michael Mina, a former professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who has studied measles and immunity. Scientists call the phenomenon \u201cimmune amnesia.\u201dEveryone who gets sick from measles will experience some level of immune amnesia, Dr. Mina said. This happens on a spectrum. For some people, it might mean that coming down with the flu will keep them in bed for an extra day or two, he said. But others may lose far more immunity and wind up getting seriously sick from the viruses they encounter. This immune amnesia can last for around three years.\u201cA real concern is you\u2019re not just going to get measles and get sick, but within the next couple of years, your kid\u2019s going to be really vulnerable to a lot of other stuff,\u201d said Dr. Aaron Milstone, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children\u2019s Center.Measles can also cause severe, long-term complications. About one in 1,000 children who develop measles will experience brain swelling, which can cause hearing and vision loss, intellectual disabilities and permanent brain damage. And people of any age who are immunocompromised are at greater risk for developing a specific type of brain swelling that can occur for up to a year after they recover, said Dr. Milstone.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23950,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23951,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23948\/revisions\/23951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}