Measles virus and chronic infections.

The role of measles virus in persistent infections has been reviewed. Measles, normally a benign disease of children can give rise directly to complications (encephalitis, pneumonia) or after a period of months or years lead to a slow neurological infection (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis). The models, both "in vitro" and "in vivo", which have been developed to study the factors involved in measles virus persistence, are compared and related to the parameters observed in the human disease. The evidence that measles virus is associated with other long term diseases (multiple sclerosis, Paget'b bone disease) is discussed.