LIFESTYLE NEWS - Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing. Also, measles virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed.
If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses, or mouths, they can become infected. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.
- Infected people can spread measles to others from four days before through four days after the rash appears.
- The symptoms of measles generally appear about seven to 14 days after a person is infected.
- Measles typically begins with high fever, cough, runny nose (coryza), and red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis).
- Two or three days after symptoms begin, tiny white spots (Koplik spots) may appear inside the mouth.
- Three to five days after symptoms begin, a rash breaks out. It usually begins as flat red spots that appear on the face at the hairline and spread downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs, and feet. Small raised bumps may also appear on top of the flat red spots. When the rash appears, a person's fever may spike to more than 39 degrees.
- After a few days, the fever subsides and the rash fades.
- Measles can be a serious in all age groups. Common measles complications include ear infections and diarrhoea.
Source: Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
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