Hospital Dresden-Friedrichstadt

Summary. The infectious disease of measles is becoming a rarity in the mem-ber states of the European Union. After the implementation of the mandatory im-munization calendar, cases of measles among children rarely encounter while those that have been registered usually pass lightly and without any signifi cant complica-tions. We present two cases of a measles-type infection with a fatal outcome for two children – 4 and 11 years of age respectively – who had not been immunized by the time of the event and who developed an unfolding clinical picture with the respective complications. In a number of countries in the European Union (as well as within some ethnical groups, the Roma population included), standard-type vaccinations may appear to be problematic. The most frequently encountered complications, re-sulting from such “blunders”, are pneumonia and encephalitis but controlling the clinical symptoms is not always possible because of: 1) late medical intervention due to the poor knowledge ability of the respective ethnical group (overdue contact with the specialized medical personnel), as well as 2) the superposed bacterial infection