Measles: What You Need to Know If You Suspect a Family Member Has The Disease

Measles, a disease that was once declared irradicated in the United States thanks to aggressive vaccination policies, is making a comeback. As measles outbreaks spread across the nation, many people have been left worried about whether or not they and their families are safe.

Here's what you need to know about what's going on with measles:

Outbreaks of measles are on the rise just about everywhere.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has documented 971 known incidents of measles in the U.S. during the first five months of the year. That's almost triple the number of cases reported in the entirety of 2018 and more than were seen in 1992, which was the last major outbreak of the disease in this country.

That's not good news. In large part, the growing "anti-vax" movement has increased the number of children who are not receiving the recommended childhood vaccines. This is putting those children—and anyone who relies on herd immunity because they can't receive the vaccination themselves or have a weakened immune system—at risk of catching the disease.

If you and your family members are vaccinated, there's good news.

Your risk of actually catching measles—even if you are exposed to someone who has them—is largely dependant on your vaccination status. If you and your children have received both doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR), you likely have no worries.

Unfortunately, this won't eliminate the risk for everyone. If, for example, you have a child that is under a year old, he or she is likely entirely without protection from the virus. Even children that have received their first shot but not the booster shot around age five may not be fully protected from the disease if they're exposed. And, if you're an adult with a compromised immune system or you never received the MMR yourself, you could catch the disease as well.

Recognize the symptoms of measles when you see them.

Measles is such an infectious disease that you don't even have to be in direct contact with an infected person to catch them. The virus can survive for several hours outside of a human host. Since you may not realize that you or your children were even exposed to measles, it's important to know the symptoms when you see them. They include the following:

• A cough and sore throat
• Spots in the mouth
• Red, watery eyes
• A fever and a runny nose
• A full-body rash

If you or your child may have measles, call an urgent care clinic, such as Alaska Urgent Care LLC, immediately. Prompt medical treatment is the best way to overcome the disease—and the sooner you act, the better.