Five Things to Know About Measles

1. Measles is more than just spots. Beyond the characteristic spots, measles causes diarrhea, vomiting, coughing, sneezing, and runny nose. It sets your body up for further infection; most measles deaths are caused by complications like dehydration, pneumonia, and encephalitis.

2. It's extremely contagious. You are contagious from four days before the spots start until four days after they are gone. The virus spreads through coughing and sneezing (aerosolized transmission), or contact with bodily fluids. The measles virus can live for up to two hours on surfaces outside the body. (HIV, in contrast, only lives for a few seconds)

3. Measles is especially severe in people who are malnourished, particularly malnourished children. Since there is a highly effective vaccine for measles, the disease is prevalent mostly in marginalized populations who are food insecure and lack access to medical care. More than 95% of measles deaths occur in low-income countries with poor medical infrastructure.

4. There is no cure for measles, just treatment of its symptoms and complications. Most patients with uncomplicated measles recover fully. Patients with complications face a more troubling outcome; there are 197,000 deaths from measles every year globally. Complications are most common in adults over 20 or children under five. In populations with high levels of malnutrition, ten percent of people with measles die.

5. German measles is actually a totally different infection, caused by the rubella virus. Rubella is a pretty mild infection except that in pregnant women, it affects their fetuses. Babies may be born blind, deaf, or with severe cardiac damage.