Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) secondary to measles in an adult with a loss of post-vaccination humoral immunity following rituximab.

Abstract

Measles is an important re-emergent infectious disease globally. Vaccine immunity at the population level is key to the prevention of outbreaks, as unvaccinated or immunosuppressed adults are particularly vulnerable to severe infection. With the increasing use of immunomodulatory treatments for autoimmune and malignant conditions, the long-term effects of CD20-expressing cell-depleting therapies on the vaccine-induced humoral immunity to measles remain unclear. Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a hyperinflammatory syndrome with high mortality commonly triggered by infection and is possibly under-reported in association with measles. In this Grand Round, we describe the first reported case of secondary HLH following measles in an adult patient. The patient had proven adequate immunological response to measles vaccination but subsequently, 6 years before this presentation, the patient had received treatment with rituximab (an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody) for relapsed autoimmune haemolytic anaemia. This case shows the need for further study of humoral immunity to diseases such as measles when using anti-CD20 therapies, such as rituximab. Furthermore, this case highlights the need for multidisciplinary input in the early recognition and prompt management of HLH, which is a potentially fatal complication of measles infection.