Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a rare, progressive, and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system caused by persistent infection with a defective measles virus. The disease predominantly affects children and adolescents, manifesting years after an initial measles infection, typically acquired in early childhood. In pediatric patients, clinical-neurological progression is characterized by an insidious onset with behavioral and cognitive changes, followed by prominent myoclonic jerks, motor deterioration, extrapyramidal and pyramidal signs, visual impairment, seizures, and eventual progression to akinetic mutism, decerebrate rigidity, and death. The course in children shows variability depending on age at onset, with more fulminant forms in younger patients (under 6 years) featuring rapid involvement of seizures and cortical blindness, while school-aged children exhibit a more classical stepwise progression over 1–3 years. Early subtle psychiatric symptoms often delay diagnosis, emphasizing the need for high clinical suspicion in unvaccinated or measles-exposed children.

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, SSPE, measles virus, children, progressive neurodegeneration, myoclonus, cognitive decline, neurological progression, childhood measles complication.

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