Treatment of Measles

Treatment-

No specific antiviral treatment exists for measles virus.

Severe complications from measles can be avoided though supportive care that ensures good nutrition, adequate fluid intake and treatment of dehydration with WHO-recommended oral rehydration solution. This solution replaces fluids and other essential elements that are lost through diarrhoea or vomiting. Antibiotics should be prescribed to treat eye and ear infections, and pneumonia.

All children in developing countries diagnosed with measles should receive two doses of vitamin A supplements, given 24 hours apart. This treatment restores low vitamin A levels during measles that occur even in well-nourished children and can help prevent eye damage and blindness. Vitamin A supplements have been shown to reduce the number of deaths from measles by 50%.

What are the treatments for measles?
There is no specific medicine that kills the measles virus. Treatment aims to ease symptoms until the body's immune system clears the infection. For most cases, rest and simple measures to reduce a fever are all that are needed for a full recovery. Symptoms will usually disappear within 7-10 days.

The following measures are often useful:

Children should drink as much as possible to prevent dehydration. Ice lollies are a useful way of giving extra fluid and keeping cool.
Paracetamol or ibuprofen can be taken to ease fever and aches and pains. You should keep the child cool (but not cold).
Antibiotics do not kill the measles virus and so are not normally given. They may be prescribed if a complication develops, such as a secondary bacterial ear infection or secondary bacterial pneumonia.
Cough remedies have little benefit on any coughs.

Related discussions
E
Guestmeasles Guest 0 replies
GuestMeasles Guest 2 replies
w81Measles w81 0 replies
Start a discussion »
Vitamin A supplements
Vitamin A supplements have been shown to help prevent serious complications arising from a measles infection. Supplements are generally recommended for children living in a country with a high prevalence of a vitamin A deficiency (this is rare in the UK, but common in the developing world). Treatment with vitamin A may be offered to people with measles.

Epidemiology of Measles

Measles infection —

 Measles occurs worldwide; control efforts have substantially altered the global distribution . Measles incidence has decreased substantially in regions where vaccination has been instituted; measles in the developing world has been attributed to low vaccination rates 

In developed countries during the prevaccine era, more than 90 percent of children acquired measles by age 15 . Following implementation of routine childhood vaccination at age 12 to 15 months, the age of peak measles incidence during epidemics in the United States shifted to six months of age. This is approximately the time at which transplacentally acquired maternal antibodies are no longer present if the mother has vaccine-induced 

Worldwide, measles is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Precise incidence estimates are difficult to obtain because of heterogeneous surveillance systems and probable underreporting [11]. In 2000, measles was estimated to cause approximately 31 to 39.9 million illnesses worldwide with an estimated 733,000 to 777,000 deaths, making it the fifth most common cause of death in children under five years of age .

The World Health Assembly adopted the World Health Organization United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund  Global Immunization Vision and Strategy, which included a goal of 90 percent reduction in global measles mortality between 2000 and 2010 

The WHO identified 47 "priority countries" to focus measles mortality reduction efforts; these nations jointly account for approximately 98 percent of measles deaths. The strategy in these nations includes the following measures:  measles immunization with a goal of >90 percent national coverage and >80 percent per-district coverage with two doses of vaccine;  surveillance activities, including case investigation and laboratory testing in all suspected cases; and  clinical management of measles cases, including administration of vitamin A 

Complications in Mesles

complications with measles are relatively common, ranging from mild and less serious complications such as diarrhea to more serious ones such as pneumonia (either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia),otitis media, acute encephalitis. (and very rarely SSPE—subacute sclerosing panencephalitis), and corneal ulceration . Complications are usually more severe in adults who catch the virus. The death rate in the 1920s was around 30% for measles pneumonia
.

Between 1987 and 2000, the case fatality rate across the United States was 3 measles-attributable deaths per 1000 cases, or 0.3%. In underdeveloped nations with high rates of malnutrition and poor healthcare, fatality rates have been as high as 28%] In immunocompromised persons  the fatality rate is approximately 30%.

Cause of Musles

Cause of Musles-

Measles is caused by the measles virus, a single-stranded, negative-sense, enveloped RNA virus of the genus Morbilli-virus within the family Paramyxoviridae. The virus was first isolated in 1954 by Nobel Laureate John F. Enders and Thomas Peebles, who were careful to point out that the isolations were made from patients who had Koplik's spots.[19] Humans are the natural hosts of the virus; no other animal reservoirs are known to exist. This highly contagious virus is spread by coughing and sneezing via close personal contact or direct contact with secretions.

Risk factors for measles virus infection include the following:

Measles
Measles virus electron micrograph
Virus classification
Group:	Group V ((-)ssRNA)
Order:	Mononegavirales
Family:	Paramyxoviridae
Subfamily:	Paramyxovirinae
Genus:	Morbillivirus
Species:	Measles virus

Children with immunodeficiency due to HIV or AIDS,leukemia,alkylating agents, or corticosteroid therapy, regardless of immunization statu
Travel to areas where measles is endemic or contact with travelers to endemic areas
Infants who lose passive antibody before the age of routine immunization
Risk factors for severe measles and its complications include the following:

Malnutrition

Underlying immunodeficiency

Pregnancy

Vitamin A deficiency

How shoud care for baby if he has measles?

How to care-






Here’s what you can do to make your baby more comfortable, and to speed his recovery:

Make sure your baby gets plenty of rest, and keep him away from nursery and other children until at least four days after he develops the rash.

Offer your baby plenty of fluids to bring down his fever and prevent dehydration. Offer him regular breastfeeds, or formula milk and extra cooled boiled water.
two months if he was born after 37 weeks and weighs more than 4kg (9lb). You can give him infant ibuprofen if he is three months or older, and weighs at least 5kg (11lb). Ask your pharmacist or doctor if you’re unsure about the dosage.

To help relieve your baby’s cough, place a bowl of warm water in his room to make it more humid. There’s no evidence that giving your baby cough medicine will help his cough. If he is one year or older, you could give him a honey and lemon drink. Mix one teaspoon of lemon juice with two teaspoons of honey in a glass of warm water.

Mesles in Babies...

How might  baby catch measles?

Measles is caused by the rubeola virus. When someone who has the virus sneezes or coughs, tiny droplets containing the virus spray into the air. The droplets stay active for two hours in the air, or on a surface. If your baby comes into contact with these droplets, he can become infected. He can also catch measles from having contact with the skin of someone who has the virus. 


Being in the same room for at least 15 minutes as someone who has measles, or having face-to-face contact with them, is enough to expose your baby to the virus.

If your baby hasn’t been immunised, and hasn’t had measles before, he is likely to catch it if he is exposed to it. Nine out of 10 children in these circumstances catch measles. 

Once your baby has caught the measles virus, it can take about 10 days for him to show any symptoms. If you know that your baby has been exposed to the measles virus, he can be treated to prevent it from developing. You will need to take him to the doctor within three days of him being exposed to it.'

What are the symptoms of measles?

If your baby has measles, his first symptoms can include:
a runny nose
a fever of about 38 degrees C
a cough
sore, red, swollen eyes
small, white spots in his mouth

Three or four days after these symptoms appear, you will notice red spots behind your baby’s ears and on his face and neck. As the rash appears, his fever may rise. 

The spots will spread over his body and develop a bumpy texture. The rash may be itchy, and will last for about five days. As it fades, it will turn a brownish colour and leave your baby’s skin dry and flaky. See a photo of a measles rash in our rashes and skin conditions gallery.

Your baby may also feel sick and tired and have aches and pains in his muscles. His cough may become troublesome, too, which may disturb his sleep.


What are the symptoms of measles?

If your baby has measles, his first symptoms can include:
a runny nose
a fever of about 38 degrees C
a cough
sore, red, swollen eyes
small, white spots in his mouth

Three or four days after these symptoms appear, you will notice red spots behind your baby’s ears and on his face and neck. As the rash appears, his fever may rise. 

The spots will spread over his body and develop a bumpy texture. The rash may be itchy, and will last for about five days. As it fades, it will turn a brownish colour and leave your baby’s skin dry and flaky. See a photo of a measles rash in our rashes and skin conditions gallery.


Your baby may also feel sick and tired and have aches and pains in his muscles. His cough may become troublesome, too, which may disturb his sleep.

Preventation of Measles

Preventation of Measles-




If someone in your household has measles, take these precautions to protect vulnerable family and friends:

• 
  
• Isolation. Because measles is highly contagious from about four days before to four days after the rash breaks out, people with measles shouldn't return to activities in which they interact with other people during this period.
  It may also be necessary to keep nonimmunized people — siblings, for example — away from the infected person.
• Vaccinate. Be sure that anyone who's at risk of getting the measles who hasn't been fully vaccinated receives the measles vaccine as soon as possible. This includes anyone born after 1957 who hasn't been vaccinated, as well as infants older than 6 months.

Preventing new infections

If you've already had measles, your body has built up its immune system to fight the infection, and you can't get measles again. Most people born or living in the United States before 1957 are immune to measles, simply because they've already had it.

For everyone else, there's the measles vaccine, which is important for:

• Promoting and preserving herd immunity. Since the introduction of the measles vaccine, measles has virtually been eliminated in the United States, even though not everyone has been vaccinated. This effect is called herd immunity.
  But herd immunity may now be weakening a bit. The rate of measles in the U.S. recently tripled.
• Preventing a resurgence of measles. Soon after vaccination rates decline, measles begins to come back. In 1998, a now-discredited study was published erroneously linking autism to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
  In the United Kingdom, where the study originated, the rate of vaccination dropped to an all-time low of just under 80 percent of all children in 2002. Between 2012 and 2013, more than 1,200 children in the U.K. contracted measles, up from 380 children in 2010.