Measles is a viral and highly infectious illness that can often lead to serious complication if left untreated. Its severity in the UK has significantly reduced due to the effective vaccination advancements in recent times.
If you haven't yet been vaccinated against measles, the chances are that you will get them at some point in your life despite the fact that they are most common with young children. The infection usually goes away after around 7 to 10 days.
A couple of days later, you are likely to experience a red-brown blotchy rash. This is usually spread around the head or the upper neck before spreading throughout your entire body.
Ideally, you should get in touch with your private GP as soon as you suspect that you have been infected.
It is highly recommended that you do it over the phone before you visit your GP practice because measles spreads very easily and you would risk infecting others too.
Measles can be an unpleasant experience, however, the symptoms will usually pass after a week without causing any health problems and once your body undergoes the infection, it builds immunity against the virus which means that it would be highly unlikely for you to get it again at a later stage in your life.
It can, however, lead to serious and life-threatening complications in some people. This would include infections of the lungs and the brain.
The virus is often spread from person to person when someone coughs or sneezes.
Since the virus can survive for a few hours after it has left an infected persons body, breathing or touching the invisible infection and placing your hands near your mouth will almost certainly give you an infection if you hadn't already had one in your lifetime.
The most effective way known to medicine is by having the MMR or more well known as measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. It is currently given in 2 doses.
The initial dose is given to your child when it is just over a year old and the second one is at 3 years and 4 months. Adults and older children can also be vaccinated if they haven't in the past.
Relieving the symptoms of measles and minimising the risk of spreading of the infection is possible in a variety of ways. Those include:
The WHO or more well known as the World Health Organisation has confirmed that the UK has successfully eliminated measles in 2016 due to the high effectiveness of the MMR vaccine.
This, however, does not indicate that measles has completely disappeared. Measles is still quite common in many countries around the world and there have been a couple of large measles outbreaks across Europe in the recent years.
There had been over 500 recorded measles cases in England, predominantly across young people that attend summer festivals and missed out on their MMR vaccine as a child.
HThe measles disease could be totally prevented with two doses of the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine, but according to WHO, measles cases have hit a record high across Europe.
There is no credible, evidence-based research that they do. There is a risk, however, through non-vaccination, of exposing yourself, your children and other children to all manner of infectious diseases.
At Medical Express Clinic we can test to see if you are protected or require vaccination. We can provide vaccines to ensure that you and your family are protected from Measles, Mumps and Rubella.
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