Measles

Within fourteen days from the reception of the contagion, the eruption of measles appears, the first stage, the stage of invasion, consisting of a catarrhal attack upon the head and chest. The child is restless and feverish with headache. The eyes grow red, weak and watery, unable to bear the light. There is frequent sneezing, with watery discharge from the nose and a constant short, dry and sometimes croupy cough. In exceptional cases there may be vomiting and delirium. About the fourth day, the stage of eruption comes on, the rash appearing first on the face and extending in the course of 48 hours over the body. About the third day of the disease the rash may be observed on the fauces. The eruption consists of numerous deep red circular spots resembling flea-bites. Between these spots the skin retains its normal color, except upon the face, where it may be oedematously swollen. On the cheeks the rash sometimes becomes confluent, forming blotches and presenting a crescentic shape. In the same order as it came on the rash fades, beginning to grow faint on the face when it is at its height on the body. In this stage the fever increases, the temperature rising to 102° to 108°. The third stage, the stage of desquamation, begins about the eighth or ninth day of the disease, when the rash disappears and the epidermis peels off in fine scales. This is the course of the normal type, but in some cases the onset of the disease is so violent that the child dies in the second stage from asthenia with typhoid symptoms. In other cases, inflammatory measles, the rash, grows darker, assumes a purple color, remaining visible for some days, and all the symptoms are intensified. The cough becomes croupy and there may be lobular pneumonia. Tins runs to exhaustion, with disappearance of the eruption and collapse. The sequelae of measles are chronic catarrhal cough and chronic rmeumonia, which may end in consumption, also scrofulous affections, chronic inflammation of the eyes, otorrhoea, swelling of the glands.

In the treatment of measles, the bedroom should be kept at an equal temperature of about 65° and aired frequently with care. The light regulated to the eyes of the invalid. The diet light, with ripe fruit in season, if the bowels are not disordered. After the disappearance of the fever and catarrhal symptoms a warm bath may be given, with another on the following day, with thorough rubbing and friction of the skin afterwards; after which, if the weather is favourable, the patient may be allowed to go out.