Measles is an acute disease that is highly contagious and easily transmitted with the smallest splashes of saliva when talking, sneezing or coughing. Measles virus, along with chickenpox and rubella viruses, belongs to the group of so-called “flying viruses”, which are accompanied by a rash and temperature and are easily carried over long distances by air currents. Most often, kindergarteners and younger schoolchildren suffer from measles, children under the age of one year rarely get sick, but, as a rule, it is very difficult.
With a disease such as measles, the incubation period in the bulk of cases is from 10 to 12 days (with possible deviations in one direction or another, but not less than 7 and not more than 21), after which the first symptoms begin to appear. At first, it is very difficult to distinguish measles from many other acute respiratory viral infections. In the early days of the disease, this can only be done if contact with the patient is known within the last one to three weeks (given that measles symptoms in children begin to appear just after this period from the moment of infection). With measles, the temperature rises first, a runny nose and a dry cough appear, which gradually becomes stronger. The child feels lethargy and weakness, refuses to eat, stops playing and tries to lie down - this is how general intoxication manifests itself. The eyes turn red, lacrimation develops, the baby may complain that it hurts him to look at the light (solar and electric), which severely hurts his eyes. Sometimes conjunctivitis joins the described symptoms, in which mucopurulent contents are separated from the eyes, as well as inflammation of the tonsils and larynx (tonsillitis and laryngitis).
This period, accompanied by catarrhal phenomena and high body temperature, is called prodromal (or, in other words, catarrhal) and lasts about 3-6 days. Sometimes at this time on the skin of the child appears an abundant rash in the form of dots and small spots, which lasts until a real measles rash appears. It is possible to distinguish measles from other infectious diseases accompanied by similar symptoms before the appearance of a typical measles rash by small whitish rashes, surrounded by a red border, which appear 2-5 days after the onset of the disease on the cheek mucosa and are called Koplik spots. Another distinguishing symptom is the appearance on the hard and soft palate of red spots - measles exanthema.
After the prodromal period, the symptoms of measles in children increase: the cough intensifies, the temperature jumps up sharply, and characteristic rashes appear on the skin, which are pink spots, which at first are small in size, but gradually grow and can sometimes even merge together, covering a large surface body. First, the rash appears behind the ears, then on the face and neck and gradually after 2-3 days covers the whole body, including arms and legs. After the rash covers the child from head to toe, it begins to disappear gradually from the face and neck, then from the chest, arms, trunk, and then from the legs - in the same sequence as it arose. In general, many of the symptoms of measles in children are similar to the symptoms of other viral infections, but this kind of top-down rash is characteristic of measles. It is noteworthy that the rash does not cause severe itching (unlike chickenpox), and most often does not bother the patient at all. Sometimes after the rash disappears, traces of a grayish-brown color remain on the skin, which pass by themselves after about a week.
In general, the symptoms of measles in children do not look much worse than the symptoms of many other diseases. However, in pre-vaccination times, when measles was very widespread, up to 3% of sick children died from it. Why is measles dangerous? With its possible complications, among which otitis media, laryngitis, pneumonia and encephalitis are most often found. And if modern medicine copes with inflammation of the ears, larynx and lungs quite easily and quickly (with the exception of atypical cases), then measles encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), even with timely treatment, can lead to the most serious consequences, up to disability and even death of the patient . Measles can also cause damage to the digestive and vascular systems.