Measles is a viral sickness that affects children. Measles, which was once extremely prevalent, can now nearly always be avoided with vaccination.
This also known as rubeola, is easily transmitted and can be devastating, if not deadly, in young infants. While global death rates have been decreasing as more children receive this vaccination, the disease still kills more than 200,000 people each year, the majority of whom are children.
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Measles
Measles is a highly contagious, dangerous virus-borne illness. Prior to the advent of this vaccine and widespread immunization in 1963, severe outbreaks occurred every 2-3 years, and this killed an estimated 2.6 million people per year.
Despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccination, more than 140 000 individuals died from measles in 2018 — the majority of them were children under the age of five.
Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family and is often spread by direct contact with the air. The virus enters the body through the respiratory tract and subsequently spreads throughout the body. This is a human illness that has never been observed in animals.
Accelerated vaccination campaigns have significantly reduced measles mortality. This immunization avoided an estimated 23.2 million deaths between 2000 and 2018. Global measles mortality has reduced by 73% since 2000*, from an estimated 536 000 to 142 000 in 2018.
Signs and symptoms
The initial symptom of this is generally a high fever that lasts 4 to 7 days after being exposed to the virus. In the early stages, a runny nose, cough, red and watery eyes, and little white patches within the cheeks may appear. A rash appears after a few days, generally on the face and upper neck. The rash spreads over three days, finally reaching the hands and feet. Rash lasts 5 to 6 days before disappearing. The rash appears 14 days after being exposed to the virus on average (within a range of 7 to 18 days).
The majority of measles-related fatalities are caused by complications from the illness. Serious problems are more likely in children under the age of five, as well as in adults over the age of 30. Blindness, encephalitis (an illness that causes brain enlargement), severe diarrhea and accompanying dehydration, ear infections, or severe respiratory infections like pneumonia are among the most serious effects. Severe measles is more common in undernourished young children, particularly those with low vitamin A levels or whose immune systems have been compromised by HIV/AIDS or other disorders.
Who is at risk?
Young children who have not been immunized are most vulnerable to this and its consequences, including death. Pregnant women who have not been immunized are in danger. Anyone who is not immune (who has not been vaccinated or who has been vaccinated but did not establish immunity) can become sick.
Measles is still widespread in many underdeveloped nations, notably in Africa and Asia. The vast majority of these deaths (more than 95%) occur in nations with poor per capita incomes and inadequate healthcare facilities.
Measles outbreaks can be more lethal in nations recovering from a natural disaster or conflict. Damage to health infrastructure and services disrupts normal vaccination, and congestion in residential camps raises the risk of infection significantly.
Measles in Pregnancy
Measles can be harmful to your unborn child if you acquire it while pregnant.
It may result in:
Premature birth, miscarriage, or stillbirth (before the 37th week of pregnancy)
your kid was born with a low birth weight
If you are pregnant and have had close contact with someone who has this, you should seek medical attention.
How It can Transmit
Measles is one of the most infectious illnesses on the planet. Coughing and sneezing, close physical contact, or direct touch with contaminated nose or throat secretions all contribute to the transmission of the virus.
For up to 2 hours, the virus stays active and infectious in the air or on contaminated surfaces. It can be spread by an infected individual from 4 days before the rash appears to 4 days after the rash appears.
Measles outbreaks can culminate in epidemics that kill many people, particularly young, malnourished children. Cases imported from other countries continue to be a significant source of infection in nations where this has been mostly eradicated.
Treatment for Measles
There is no particular antiviral therapy for this virus.
Severe consequences from this can be avoided by providing supportive care that includes proper nutrition, enough fluid intake, and treatment of dehydration with a WHO-recommended oral rehydration solution. This solution restores fluids and other vital components lost due to diarrhea or vomiting. Eye and ear infections, as well as pneumonia, should be treated with antibiotics.
All children diagnosed with this should be given two doses of vitamin A 24 hours apart. This medication recovers low vitamin A levels that occur even in well-nourished youngsters during this and can help avoid eye damage and blindness. Supplementing with vitamin A has also been demonstrated to lessen the number of measles fatalities.
How to Prevent from It
Routine measles vaccination for children, in conjunction with mass immunization programs in countries with high case and mortality rates, is an important public health strategy for reducing worldwide measles fatalities. For over 60 years, the measles vaccination has been in use. It is risk-free, efficient, and affordable. A child’s measles vaccination costs around one dollar.
This vaccination is frequently combined with rubella and/or mumps vaccines. It is equally safe and effective when used alone or in combination. The addition of rubella to measles vaccination raises the cost marginally while allowing for shared delivery and administrative costs.
In 2018, over 86% of the world’s children received one dose of vaccination by their first birthday, up from 72% in 2000. Because roughly 15% of vaccinated infants do not develop immunity after the first dose, two doses of the vaccine are required to guarantee protection and avoid outbreaks. In 2018, 69% of youngsters received their second measles vaccination dosage.
In 2018, around 6.1 million newborns were not immunized with at least one dose of the measles vaccine through regular vaccination in three countries: India, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
Conclusion
Measles is an airborne virus-borne illness that is highly infectious. Symptoms may appear eight to twelve days following exposure. Symptoms might persist anywhere from 10 to 14 days.
Rubeola, 10-day measles, and red measles are other names for measles. It is not the same as German measles or the rubella virus.