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A terrible story of a child and measles
Identifier
006941
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Poor poor little girl, I believe her.
She was raped and as a consequence picked up the measles virus, which then attacked her spinal cord because of the trauma she had suffered and the low state of her immune system, it traveled to her brain caused encephalitis and she died
A description of the experience
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1996 Jun;5(2):110-3. Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis presenting with psychosis and possible sexual abuse. Forrest G1, Stores G. University Department of Psychiatry, Headington, Oxford, United Kingdom.
A previously healthy 8-year-old girl began to experience nightmares, soon followed by sleeplessness and perceptual abnormalities including visual hallucinations.
She also complained that she had been attacked and possibly assaulted sexually.
Physical investigations were considered to have provided no relevant abnormality and psychiatric enquiries were begun directed towards possible sexual abuse. However, the child's mental and physical state continued to deteriorate and evidence of a progressive organic process was then obtained from past school reports, review of the initial EEG findings and further EEG investigations.
The latter in particular indicated a diagnosis of SSPE which was confirmed immunologically.
Treatment was ineffective and the child died 7 months after the onset of the illness. The details of the psychological changes at the onset of SSPE are ill-defined.
This case illustrates that they can include psychotic phenomena but also that the basic nature of the disorder may be misconstrued as psychological depending on the circumstances.
PMID: 8814417
The source of the experience
PubMedConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Symbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
EncephalitisMeasles
Physical abuse and beating
Psychological trauma
Rape