An epidemiological study of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis in Japan, 1976

The National Registry for subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) of Japan was established in 1976 at the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. By March 1977, forty five clinically confirmed cases of SSPE were reported to the Registry, with onset of symptoms occurring between 1966 and 1976. Histories of measles were available in 42 of these cases. Thirty nine patients with known histories had measles prior to onset of SSPE and 3 had no history of measles illness. Twenty eight (71.7%) of the 39 patients had measles before the age of 2 years. All cases were 1 to 14 years old at the time of onset of SSPE and the mean interval between measles and SSPE was 6.1 years. One of the 3 cases with no history of measles was a recipient of measles killed vaccine, but no case of SSPE was reported among recipients of measles live, attenuated vaccine.