Monday 7 October 2013

Viruses Part two

MEASLES-
  • When that person sneezes or coughs, droplets spray into the air. The droplets can get into other people’s noses or throats when they breathe or put their fingers in their mouth or nose after touching an infected surface. The virus can live on infected surfaces for up to 2 hours and spreads so easily that people who are not immune will probably get it when they come close to someone who is infected.
Symptoms of Measles:
  • Fever
  • Dry cough
  • Runny nose
  • Sore throat
  • Inflamed eyes (conjunctivitis)
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Tiny white spots with bluish-white centers found inside the mouth on the inner lining of the cheek, called Koplik's spots
  • A skin rash made up of large, flat blotches that often flow into one another


  • Before measles vaccine, each year in the United States about 450-500 people died because of measles, 48,000 were hospitalized, 7,000 had seizures, and about 1,000 suffered permanent brain damage or deafness. Today there are only about 60 cases a year reported in the United States, and most of these originate outside the country.


  • Measles were first discovered in the 1930s at Boston.


  • The circumstances that created measles were another epidemic called smallpox.




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