Brain disease case stresses measles danger

Doctors say a woman developing a fatal measles-related brain disease highlights the need to lift vaccination rates.

The case of a Victorian woman who developed a rare, fatal brain disease from a measles infection highlights the danger of not vaccinating, doctors say.

The 23-year-old woman, whose case is reported in the Medical Journal of Australia, presented to doctors after suffering a seizure.

She was found to have developed impaired speech and movement, involuntary bodily jerks and falls and lack of bladder control over a nine-month neurological decline leading up to the seizure.

The woman, who moved to Australia from The Philippines two years prior, was diagnosed with probable subacute sclerosing panencephalitis - a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by infection associated with measles.

"This case is important as it highlights a terrible consequence of a vaccine-preventable disease," the study's authors said, pointing to the number of measles cases in Australia rising from 154 in 2013 to 335 the following year.

A measles vaccination rate of 92 per cent for five-year-olds in 2012 fell short of a desired 99 per cent rate to prevent transmission of the disease, the authors said.