Like influenza virus and rhinovirus, measles virus is transmitted by the cough or sneeze of an infected individual.
Chains of transmission commonly occur among household contacts, school children and health care workers. An uninfected person can get measles just by breathing the air in a room that was previously occupied by an infected person. There will be aerosolization of particles from evaporated respiratory secretions called droplet nuclei.
These are small less 5 um particles that may remain suspended in the air for long periods and me be widely disperse by air currents.
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.
Measles virus usually causes no disease symptoms until about ten days after infection. This period of ‘silence’ results because the innate immune system deals so effectively with the initial measles attack that few airway cells are infected and little new virus is produced.
How is measles transmitted?
