Death of measles: the third victim was a heart transplant

The third deceased victim of the measles this year, a girl of 16 years, had been grafted from the heart to 2 years and a half and could not be vaccinated because of antirejection treatments, said his mother Tuesday at France Bleu Gascogne.

"At the age 2 years old, she was getting very tired and I was told she had a life-threatening prognosis, "said Sylvie Eraville, mother of the young Marine. "Without a new heart it would not have survived."

Grafted patients must take immunosuppressive therapy for life to avoid rejection of the new organ. These treatments, which lower their immune defenses, prevent them from being vaccinated against measles, hence the importance that the people around them are, so as not to transmit the disease.

The death of the girl was announced Friday. We do not know how she contracted this very contagious disease.

For his mother it is also a second death for the donor of the heart of the girl. "Today, it is not only Marine who leaves, but there is also the donor," said his mother, according to which the teenager had participated in the World Transplant Games in 2013, 2015 and 2017, with key to gold medals in swimming and table tennis

The first signs of a deterioration in Marine Eraville's health appeared in May. The girl was hospitalized at the Bordeaux University Hospital and finally died of neurological complications, according to France Bleu Gascogne.

Before her, a man also immunodepressed was swept away by measles, June 9 in Marseille, the day before at age 26.

According to Var Matin, this man, named Julien, had suffered from an immune deficiency since birth and had had a kidney transplant five years ago.

His story "illustrates the need for 'high immunization coverage, in particular to prevent those who can not be vaccinated from being affected by a potentially life-threatening disease for them,' the Renaloo kidney transplant badociation had reacted.

The first death of the Measles of the year was held on February 10 in Poitiers. It was a 32-year-old mother who had never been vaccinated and who contracted the virus while driving her father to the emergency department.