At just 10 months old, Laine Bradley came down with the measles, a disease she was still too young to be vaccinated against.

Her mother, Cecily Johnson, had taken her on a trip from their home in Western Australia to Sydney.

“I was unaware of the outbreak. Had I been informed, I would have ensured she received her immunization earlier,” explained Johnson.

Upon their return to Western Australia, Laine developed a rash.

As a paediatric nurse, Johnson quickly identified the symptoms as those of measles.

After a few grizzly days of being unwell, Laine recovered. 

“She was fine and over it. She had no real problems. I never thought any more of it until she was seven,” Johnson said.

It was at that age when Johnson began to think something was wrong with her daughter, but it was hard to pinpoint what exactly.

Laine was naturally smart and bright girl, who even taught her brother to read and write before he went to school.

“One day she said to me, ‘I can’t go to school anymore. I feel dumb’,” Johnson said. 

“That’s when I went, oh my God, there’s something wrong here.”

Laine began to show signs of confusion. 

“I would say, ‘Oh, come on, have a shower.’ And she would answer, ‘Where’s the shower?’” Johnson said. 

Johnson said she took Laine to multiple doctors and had her seen at the hospital, but everyone told her there was nothing wrong with her daughter.

It was only when Johnson desperately appealed for help from a specialist doctor she knew that she got some answers.

“He said one thing: ‘Did she have measles as a baby?’” Johnson said.

Laine was diagnosed with Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare and fatal neurological disorder caused by the measles virus she contracted as an infant.

Within two weeks of her diagnosis Laine went blind, and then lost the ability to walk or speak. 

Laine hung on for five more years, but for much of that time she was completely bedridden and unable to do anything for herself.

She died when she was 12 in 1995.

During Laine’s illness and after her death, Johnson began sharing her story, raising important awareness about SSPE, measles and the importance of immunisation.

“If more people knew that having measles isn’t just having a rash getting over it, that kids can die with it, they would make sure their kids were vaccinated,” Johnson said.

Speaking out has made Johnson a target of anti-vaxxers who do not care to hear her message.

In an appalling move, a group of anti-vaxxers even showed up at Laine’s funeral, Jonhson said, adding police officers were needed to escort them away.

“They were yelling, ‘She didn’t die of that, it’s something else. She’s a liar.’”

Johnson has had to put aside her feelings about people who oppose vaccinations when she helps children with SSPE through a support group.

“I’ve helped anti vaxxers when their kids have gotten ill. I put it all away, and I think of the child,” Johnson said.

While anti-vaccination sentiment had waxed and waned over the decades since Laine’s death, Johnson said she had noticed a marked uptick since the pandemic.

She has noticed it particularly with her interactions online.

“I just had a guy laugh at Laine’s photo, a dead child’s photo,” she said.

“I have to go past all the comments because they will break my heart.”

Johnson is sharing Laine’s story again as Australia is experiencing the highest number if measles cases in six years.

The last peak before then was back in 2019, when 284 were recorded for the full year.

Earlier this month, multiple alerts have been issued across Queensland and Western Australia stemming from infected travellers returning from Bali.

Measles was considered to have been eradicated in Australia in 2014, when The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Australia free of the disease.

Australia’s thorough childhood vaccination program has largely kept any subsequent outbreaks to a minimum over the intervening years.

Measles is one of the most contagious human diseases and WHO recommends at least 95 percent of the total population receive two doses of the measles vaccine in childhood to achieve “herd immunity”.

In Australia, doses of the measles vaccine are given at 12 months and 18 months.

However, since the pandemic that number has been steadily declining.

In 2024, there were 92.14 percent of 1-year-old’s fully vaccinated and 90.44 percent of 2-year-olds.

“In terms of overall herd immunity, the impacts at this stage may be relatively small. But measles immunity gaps are much greater in some parts of Australia, such as the north coast of New South Wales and the Gold Coast in Queensland,” the pair wrote.

“Measles immunity is also lower in some adults, because vaccination rates were lower when they were children. A second dose of measles vaccine was not added to the National Immunisation Program until 1992.”

Australia is not the only country to see increased rates of measles. In the US, cases of measles are at their highest level since 2000, when the disease was declared eliminated there.

“Amid a global resurgence of measles and more cases in travellers, supporting international efforts to boost immunisation rates in all countries is critical. This will further reduce the chance of outbreaks here,” Beard and Macartney said.