A Quick Look at Measles

Measles is a viral infection in the respiratory system caused by paramyxovirus. This disease is highly contagious. Paramyxovirus is spread by having contact with fluid from an infected person’s nose or mouth. This disease is one of the most dangerous in child’s common sicknesses.

Common symptoms of measles are runny nose, cough, fever, and red eye. The fever may up to 39º C and last up to 4 days. Soaring throat, grayish spots (Koplik’s spot) inside the mouth, and rashes on all over the body are the other symptoms that you may find in infected children.

Temperature may fall after four days but there is a high tendency that it will rise again when the rashes appear. Rashes normally appear around the ear and can crawl to the body down to the legs within a day. The spots start from small red dots but can double in size very quickly.

This viral infection may be prevented by giving your child a vaccine against paramyxovirus. In developed countries, almost all children from the age of 12 to 15 are given a shot of MMR vaccine for Mumps, Measles, and Rubella.

A person that has had contact with measles virus is already immune against another threat of measles. The human body infected with this virus can already create anti-bodies it recovers.

It is also advised that pregnant women and those who are planning to get pregnant must be immunized from measles because it can infect the unborn baby and also may lead to baby’s death.