Infectious Diseases Infectious Disease Basics

Measles

When an infected person sneezes or coughs, droplets spray into the air and can land on surfaces or reach other people’s noses and throats when they breathe. The virus can remain active for up to two hours on a surface and can be transmitted during this timeframe if a person touches it.

Though the symptoms experienced by people with measles are unpleasant, most people (particularly those living in the United States and other industrialized countries) recover fully. However, the complications of the illness can be serious and potentially fatal. Between 6 and 20 percent of people with measles develop an ear infection, diarrhea or pneumonia. One out of every 1,000 people with measles develops inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) and about one out of every 1,000 people with measles dies, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Other complications may include:

• Bronchitis, laryngitis or croup. Measles may lead to laryngitis (inflammation of the voice box), bronchitis (inflammation of the inner walls that line the main air passages to the lungs) or croup (a disease of infants and young children marked by harsh coughing and fever).
  
  
• Pregnancy problems. Measles can cause miscarriage (spontaneous termination of pregnancy), premature labor or babies with low birth weight.
  
  
• Low platelet count (thrombocytopenia). Measles may lead to a decrease in platelets, the type of blood cells needed for blood clotting.

Before a measles vaccine was first licensed in the United States in 1963, measles was considered a part of childhood and almost everyone developed the disease. Although the vaccine has reduced the number of measles cases in the United States by greater than 99 percent, it is still considered a serious health problem, according to the CDC.

Between 1989 and 1991, there was a measles epidemic in the United States among children who did not receive the vaccine or received only one dose of it. The vaccine is not as widely available in many developing countries and there are still millions of measles cases reported worldwide each year. Although unvaccinated people are unlikely to come into contact with the measles virus in the United States, international travel to other areas may expose more people to the virus.

In recent years, the number of measles cases in the United States has been small (fewer than 50 cases). These usually involve high school or college students who have not been vaccinated or have received only a single dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC. Since 1993, the largest outbreaks of measles have occurred among groups that refuse to be vaccinated.

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