Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), also known as Dawson's encephalitis, is a rare childhood and adolescent progressive dementia disease associated with measles virus or variants of measles virus. It is a rare and fatal disease of the central nervous system caused by chronic persistent infection of the defective measles virus. It is characterized by occult onset, subacute or chronic progression, and fatal outcomes. Schilder first described the characteristics of the disease in 1924. In 1933, Dawson found inclusion bodies in the brain tissue of two death cases, called subacute inclusion body encephalitis, and it was definitely related to the viral pathogen. Paramyxovirus-like particles were observed by electron microscopy in 1965. A high-titer anti-measles virus antibody was detected in the patient's cerebrospinal fluid and serum, and the measles virus was isolated from the patient's brain cell culture in 1969.