The Disease

Not everyone recognizes measles as the serious disease it really is, possibly
because it used to be a routine part of everyone's childhood, and also because we don't see it nearly as much as we used to. But measles can be deadly. The 10th Century Persian physician Rhazes considered measles "more to be dreaded than smallpox." Measles still kills about a million people a year around the world. Measles can also make a pregnant woman have a miscarriage or give birth prematurely.

For most children, measles means a rash and a cold, and missing a few days of
school. But about 1 out of every 10 children who get measles also gets an ear infection. And up to 1 out of 20 of them gets pneumonia. About 1 child in every 1,000 who get measles will get encephalitis. (Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain that can lead to convulsions, and can leave your child deaf or mentally retarded.) Out of every 1,000 children who get measles, 1 or 2 die from it.

Measles is caused by a virus. It spreads so easily that any child who is exposed to
it and is not immune will probably get it. You can get measles from an infected person who coughs or sneezes around you or even talks to you. Before measles vaccine was available, nearly all children got measles by the time they were 15 years old. Around 500,000 cases a year were reported in the United States during the 10 years before measles vaccine, and there were probably another 3 million cases a year that were not reported. During each of these years more than 450 people died because of measles, 48,000 were hospitalized, 7,000 had seizures, and about 1,000 suffered permanent brain damage or deafness.

The first signs of measles are a fever, runny nose, and cough, which appear about
10-12 days after a child is exposed. The rash appears several days later. A child with
measles is contagious from about 4 days before the rash appears to about 4 days after.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases