Measles Symptom

Signs and Symptoms of measles

There may be no symptoms of measles. Before the rash appears, an affected person may have a runny nose, cough, muscle pains, sore throat, fever, white spots inside the mouth (on the insides of the cheek) and red eyes. A rash then starts behind the ears and is red, slightly raised and may become purplish.

The spots may merge to form a generally red, raised skin. The rash tends to occur five days into the illness and lasts about five days.

Serious symptoms

The main concern with measles is that the minor symptoms described above will progress to more serious complications. These include:

• Sudden severe earache and pain
• Severe chest infections, including bronchitis and pneumonia
• Brain inflammation (encephalitis)
• Internal bleeding

It is particularly important because of the risk of severe brain damage to try to protect children from measles by having them immunised early in life.

Measles