It is a viral infection. This viral infection is characterised by rashes in skin followed byfever. Sometimes, it also affects several parts of the body. Even though thereis no effective treatment for measles, vaccination can prevent the condition.Vaccines have significantly reduced the number of affected patients.
Measles can be classified into two types namely, rubeola and rubella. The viral infection is named after the virusthat affects the people, where rubeola and rubella are the two different virusesinfect the people leading towards measles. Both these types of measles arecaused by two different viruses. Among these two types of measles, more peopleare likely to be affected by the former. Further, rubeola is severe viralinfection than rubella. Let us see each type of measles briefly.
Rubeola: It is alternatively termed as hard measles or red measles or just measles. It is a severe viral infection, which can quickly result in pneumonia and brain inflammation. Initial symptoms of rubeola is likely to appear in around 8 to 10 days The warning signs of the infection include mild fever, cough, running nose, conjunctivitis, and loss of hunger. Once the infection get aggravate, the rashes are developed in the skin. Initially, rashes occur in the forehead and face, which gradually spread over to all parts of the body such as trunk, hands and legs. The rashes are characterised by small bumps in red colour. Even though Rubeloa is not a fatal infection, severe infection might lead towards serious ailments. More than 50% of patients affected with this condition are likely to develop ear infections, pneumonia, and bacterial infections. Pneumonia can turn out to be a fatal condition in infants. In addition, it weakens the immune system of the patients. Rubella: Three day measles and German measles are the alternate terms of this type of measles. It is less severe than the other type and is generally caused as a congenital viral infection. The symptoms of rubella are milder than the other infection. Warning signs include red eyes, very mild fever and general tiredness. Adults are more prone to rubella than children. Apparent symptom of rubella is inflamed and tender lymph nodes. Since the symptoms are mild, sometimes, the condition is not recognized. Fortunately, these symptoms excluding the lymph nodes are found to disappear gradually. Rashes in skin appear in pink or in light red. In most cases, rashes are developed only in faces. Even though the condition is very mild, there is a most complicated subtype of rubella, which is referred as inherited or congenital rubella. It refers to infection of rubella virus by pregnant women during their pregnancy period. Infants infected with rubella have high risk of developing disabilities, hearing impairment, cardiac affects, etc.
