mar 26, 1954 - Measles 1954
Description:
Measles is caused by the measles virus and is a highly contagious disease and the virus lives in the nose and throat mucus of the infected person. This is also an airborne disease as it is spread through infected droplets in the air when there is close personal contact with an infected person or through coughs or sneezes. Many described the disease to be more dreaded than smallpox according to descriptions dating back to 900 AD. Humans are the only host and no animals are known to be a reservoir. It was also claimed to be one of the most contagious diseases as it spreads incredibly quickly. It was also nicknamed the “crowd disease” and immensely infected people living in highly populated areas.
The virus is said to have not existed in the Americas until the Europeans arrived. Before Columbus, the indigenous population was 50-100 million people and was reduced down 1/10th of the population due to diseases such as smallpox and measles. A similar story happened in Hawaii where the population was 400,000-1 million native Hawaiians and dropped down to 40,000 within 100 years after James Cook (a European) made the first contact in 1778.
Measles was first identified as a virus in 1954, then the measles vaccine was first introduced in the early 1960s and mass campaigns promoting immunization began and this helped reduce cases in developing countries. To this day, there are still millions of cases of measles all over the world, primarily in developing countries in Africa and Asia. Due to this, people still need to get vaccinated and be cautious of this disease.
Symptoms: The symptoms of measles typically develop 10-12 days after exposure and it can last for 7-10 days. Symptoms at first include fever, cough, and a runny nose. A red rash will begin to form (typically starts on the face then will spread to the rest of the body) and tiny white spots 2-3 days after symptoms begin. The CDC recommends children to get two doses of the MMR vaccine from 12-15 months of age and the second dose from 4-6 years old which protects against measles, mumps and rubella and the vaccine is considered to be very safe and with both doses it’s around 97% effective.
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