Symptoms of measles in children - this should be known to all parents

Measles is an acute disease that is highly infectious and easily transmitted with the smallest splashes of saliva during conversation, sneezing or coughing. The measles virus, along with the viruses of chickenpox and rubella, belongs to a group of so-called "flying viruses", which are accompanied by a rash and a temperature and are easily transported over long distances by air streams. Most often, measles are affected by kindergartens and junior schoolchildren, children rarely get sick for a year, but, as a rule, it is very difficult.

With such a disease as measles, the incubation period in the bulk of cases is 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 SARS. In the first days of the disease, this can be done only if it is known about contact with the patient within the last one to three weeks (given that the symptoms of measles in children begin to appear just after such a period from the time of infection). With measles, the temperature rises first, a runny nose and a dry cough appear, which gradually becomes stronger. The child feels lethargic and weak, refuses to eat, stops playing and tries to lie down - this is how common intoxication manifests. Eyes blush, lacrimation develops, the baby can complain that it hurts to look at the light (solar and electric), which severely cuts eyes. Sometimes conjunctivitis is attached to the described symptoms, in which the 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 another, catarrhal) and lasts about 3-6 days. Sometimes at this time on a skin of the child there is an uneventful eruption in the form of points and small specks which keeps up to display of the present measles rash. To distinguish measles from other infectious diseases, accompanied by similar symptoms, before the appearance of a typical measles rash can be by small whitish rashes surrounded by a red border, which appear on the 2-5 day from the moment of the onset of the disease on the mucous cheeks and are called Koplik stains. Another distinguishing symptom is the appearance on the hard and soft sky of red spots - measles exanthema.

At the end of the prodromal period, the symptoms of measles in children increase: cough increases, the temperature jumps up, and the skin appears characteristic rashes, which are pink spots that first have a small size, but gradually expand and sometimes even merge, covering a large surface Body. First the rash appears behind the ears, then on the face and neck and gradually in 2-3 days covers the entire body, including hands and feet. After the rash has covered the child from head to toe, it begins to gradually disappear from the face and neck, then from the chest, arms, trunk, and then from the feet - in the same sequence as it appeared. In general, many of the symptoms of measles in children are similar to those of other viral infections, but this kind of "top-down" rash is typical of measles. It is noteworthy that the rash does not cause severe itching (unlike chickenpox), but most often does not bother the patient at all. Sometimes after the rash descends, traces of a grayish-brown color remain on the skin, which pass by themselves in 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 spread very widely, up to 3% of affected children died from it. Why is measles dangerous? Their possible complications, among which most often are otitis media, laryngitis, pneumonia and encephalitis. And if modern medicine copes with inflammation of the ears, larynx and lungs 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, even disability and even death of the patient . Also measles can cause damage to the digestive and vascular systems.