Viral infections of Toronto children during 1965: II. Measles encephalitis and other complications.

Among 16 cases of measles encephalitis observed in Toronto during 1964 and 1965, including six who were stuporous or comatose on admission and five who presented with convulsions, measles virus was isolated from CSF of one patient, rising titres of measles antihemagglutinin were detected in another patient, and 14 showed high antibody titres in sera collected as early as two to five days after onset of the measles rash. Increasing levels of measles antibody were detected in paired sera from three of seven patients with uncomplicated measles, and elevated antihemagglutinin titres were found in 16 cases of measles without neural involvement. Measles virus was isolated from lung tissue of a fatal case of giant cell pneumonia. Administration of pooled human gamma globulin to one leukemic patient, and of leukocytes from a convalescent donor to another leukemic child, may have assisted their recovery from measles.