A 22-year-old Australian woman with atypical subacute sclerosing panencephalitis diagnosed at postmortem

Abstract

Measles remains a significant global health problem. Despite the decline in measles prevalence in Australia following the implementation of a national vaccination program, challenges surrounding this disease remain. This report describes a 22-year-old woman who presented with coordination loss, tremor, choreiform movements and marked visual blurring, and her condition rapidly deteriorated to coma and death. Antemortem investigations did not yield a unifying diagnosis. Postmortem examination provided a diagnosis of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. This patient had a rare neurological complication of measles infection, and her condition is remarkable for the atypical clinical presentation.