Symptoms of measles

Symptoms of measles
About ten to fourteen days after exposure to the measles virus, people infected with measles will get a rash, high fever cough, runny nose, and watery eyes. The eye symptoms can develop into conjunctivitis (pink eye), a condition that causes swelling and redness of the eye, tearing, and sensitivity to light. The skin rash often takes the form of bright red spots that are distinct and separate from each other.

They may multiply so rapidly, however that they appear to be a solid red mass. The rash usually starts behind the ears and along the hairline and then quickly spreads to the rest of the face, moving downward to the rest of the body. In addition to this red rash, light spots resembling grains of salt may appear on the inside of the patient’s cheeks near the back of the mouth. Doctors call these Koplik’s spots. These typical measles symptoms last for one to two weeks.

Most people recover form measles within ten to fourteen days. After they are well again they are no longer contagious, which means they no longer infect other people with the disease. In addition, people who have had measles develop an immunity to it – they will never catch measles again, even if someone with the disease sneezes or coughs right in their face.
Symptoms of measles

Measles

Measles
Measles is a highly contagious disease. It is caused by a virus – an extremely tiny organism that can only reproduce itself by residing within living cells. Humans are the only living creatures who can develop measles, and they can only get it if they are exposed to the measles virus.

The most common way that people get infected with the disease is by breathing in tiny droplets of water vapor containing the measles virus. An uninfected person can get measles just by breathing the air in a room that was previously occupied by an infected person. The measles can live in the air for two hours after an infected person leaves the room. People can also get measles if they have direct contact with fluid from the nose or mouth of an infected person.

Once introduced into a person’s respiratory system, the measles virus proceeds to attach itself to the lining of the airways. Drawing energy from this new host, the virus begins to multiply and spread through the body.
Measles

Filariasis

Filariasis
Filariasis is a helminthic infection found principally in tropical and subtropical areas in Africa, and in the South Pacific regions. The disease is transmitted from man through several genera and species of mosquitoes. The acute disease is manifested by recurrent chills and fever and by visible swelling or nodules of the lymphatics and redness of the overlaying skin due to parasitic involvement.

The illness usually subsides gradually with or without therapy. But in those who have been repeatedly infected and are chronically ill, the inflammatory reaction and scarring of the tissues surrounding the vessels may impede the flow of lymph and blood, and mammoth enlargement (“elephantiasis”) of the arms, legs, scrotum and breasts can occur. During World War II approximately fifteen thousand American military personnel became infected, but prompted withdrawal of these patients from the endemic zones prevented chronic disease and elephantiasis.

Filariasis was the first human disease described in which transmission through the skin was cause by the bites of arthropods. Doctor O. Wucherer (1868) found the embryonic filarial worms in the urine of a patient in Bahia, Brazil. T. R. Lewis (1872), working in India, observed the embryos in the urine and also in the blood, and Joseph Bancroft (1878) in Brisbane, Australia first described the adult worm. The parasite has been designated Wuchereria bancrofti.

The momentous discovery of the role of the mosquito in transmitting the disease was made by the Scotsman Patrick Mansion (1877) while he was practicing medicine in the Far East with the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. He became interested in the disease that confronted him, including filariasis. In that disease he recognized the parasites in peripheral blood films and also in postmortems material.

He noted the nocturnal appearance of the parasites in the peripheral blood and postulated that a blood sucking insect might be responsible for transmitting the infection. Manson proved the presence of the microfilaria in the mosquito Culex fatigans, thus supplying the missing link in the life cycle of the disease.
Filariasis