Measles is a highly contagious disease that can lead to serious complications. It is more than a rash: it can be dangerous for anyone, and especially for babies and young children. If you think you or your child has been exposed, call your health care provider right away.
How symptoms unfold
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| 7–14 days after infection | First symptoms: high fever (may spike above 104°), cough, runny nose (coryza), and red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis, or pink eye) |
| 2–3 days after symptoms start | Tiny white spots (Koplik spots) may appear inside the mouth |
| 3–5 days after symptoms start | The rash appears, usually as flat red spots on the face at the hairline, spreading down to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. Small raised bumps may appear on top, and the spots may join together as they spread. Fever may spike above 104° Fahrenheit |
Common complications
- Ear infections in about 1 in 10 children with measles.
- Diarrhea in fewer than 1 in 10 people with measles.
Who is most at risk
Measles can be serious at any age, but complications are more likely in:
- children under 5;
- adults over 20;
- pregnant women;
- people with weakened immune systems, such as from leukemia or HIV infection.
Severe complications
Some people develop severe complications such as pneumonia (lung infection) or encephalitis (swelling of the brain), may need hospital care, and could die.
- Hospitalization: about 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the United States who get measles is hospitalized.
- Pneumonia: as many as 1 in 20 children with measles get pneumonia, the most common cause of measles deaths in young children.
- Encephalitis: about 1 child in 1,000 with measles develops it, which can cause convulsions and leave the child deaf or with an intellectual disability.
- Death: nearly 1 to 3 in every 1,000 infected children die from respiratory and neurologic complications.
- Pregnancy: in pregnant women who have not had the MMR vaccine, measles can cause premature birth or low birth weight.
Immune amnesia
People who have had measles may be more likely to get sick from other infections even after recovering. The measles virus can damage immune cells that remember viruses and bacteria the body has met before, so the immune system temporarily "forgets" how to respond to them — an effect called immune amnesia, which may last months or even a few years.
A rare, fatal late complication
Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a very rare but fatal disease of the central nervous system caused by a measles infection earlier in life.
- It generally appears 7 to 10 years after measles, even in people who seemed fully recovered.
- Thanks to widespread vaccination, it is rarely reported in the United States.
- Among people who caught measles during the U.S. resurgence of 1989 to 1991, 7 to 11 in every 100,000 were estimated to be at risk.
- The risk may be higher for those who get measles before age 2.
Prevention
Vaccination is the best protection against measles and its serious effects. Talk to your health care provider about the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Sources
Rewritten from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention page "Measles Symptoms and Complications" (public domain), in hubnx's own words. Its stock photograph is not reproduced.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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