Measles or Rubeola is an exanthematous or eruptive contagious form of
children's disease.
In Measles the medium of contagion is the excretion from the air
passages, mucus coughed up and air exhaled; also the saliva, tears,
blood and perspiration of the patient.
In Measles also, as is the case with regard to scarlet fever, the
"contagium," or germ of contagion, is unknown.
The general susceptibility to measles is extraordinarily great the
poison being of a virulent nature.
If the disease attacks one of feeble constitution whose environment is
unfavorable and insanitary,--dwelling in badly ventilated rooms, for
instance, with little attention paid to personal cleanliness, the attack
is likely to assume a malignant form.
A period of from ten to fourteen days may elapse between infection and
the development of the symptoms.
During this period the patient may infect others.
This explains how easily a whole school may become infected.
During the preliminary period children feel tired, relaxed, suffer pain
in the joints and headache; they have chills and are feverish at
evening. Among the symptoms enumerated are catarrhal affections of the
air passages, the larynx, the nose and eyes. Constant sneezing,
nosebleeding, cough, watering eyes, ultra sensitiveness to strong
light, are concurrent conditions. At the same time the fever becomes
pronounced.
These symptoms continue for four or five days and then rapidly abate and
the eruption appears. First a red rash is seen, which spreads over the
surface of the face. Inside the mouth and throat a similar mottled
redness is seen. In the course of a day the eruption spreads over the
whole body. After continuing at their height for a day or two the
symptoms gradually decline, and in a little over a week the child may be
pronounced well. The skin then sheds all the superfluous cuticle left by
the eruption, and in three or four weeks after inception the normal
condition is again reached.
In the malignant form all the symptoms are of a severe type.
Occasionally catarrhal affections of the air passages, croup or
pulmonary inflammation supervene, and the patient succumbs.
Other concurrent forms of disease are whooping cough, diphtheria,
pulmonary consumption, inflammation of the eyes, ear disease, and
swelling of the glands.
Measles demand no distinctive treatment. The room must be well
ventilated, with a temperature of about 60°, and light must be almost
totally excluded. At night no lamp should be allowed.
_Treatment and diet_ should be the same as in scarlet fever.