Measles Virus : Research Task

As of January 2015, it was reported that at least two dozen people were infected with Measles between

According to the Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine Preventable Diseases textbook aka “The Pink Book” (2015) which was produced jointly by the Communication and Education Branch, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Measles is a paramyxovirus with the primary site of infection in the nasopharynx. It has an incubation period of 10-12 days. The first symptoms to occur are fevers (increasing stepwise 103-105 degrees), cough, runny nose and conjunctivitis approximately 2-3 days after exposure and last 2-4 days. The second part of the infection occurs approximately 14 days after exposure; which is evidence by Koplik spots on the oral mucosa. Then, 1-2 days later, a maculopapular rash develops along the hair line, face,

Measles was discovered in the 19th century by a Persian Doctor, but was not recognized until 1957 as an infectious agent in human blood by a Scottish physician. In 1912 measles became a notifiable disease and in the first decade that records were kept there was on average 6,000 deaths per year reported from the disease. (Center For Disease Control). There is no definite origination of measles but scientists believe that it dates back to the Roman Empire about the 11th and 12th century (NCBI, 2010). The first outbreak known in America was in 1657 in Boston,

In early April 2013 a measles outbreak was discovered in North Carolina. By mid-May the outbreak had been identified in Stokes and Orange Counties via 23 active cases. Every case was linked back to a family that had spent 3 months in India and had not been vaccinated. By the 16th of April the state laboratory of Public Health was able to confirm the diagnosis, with the last known case being confirmed on May 7th. The investigation of this outbreak revealed 4 patients with a confirmed diagnosis that had received one of vaccination of the two part series. The other 19 cases had not ever been vaccinated.

Measles was at one time in the not too distant past, a killer of those that became infected. Measles has been around for centuries. The first published, written account of the disease was in the ninth century by a Persian doctor. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on measles, it was not until 1757 that a Scottish physician, named Francis Home, proved that something infectious in the blood was causing the disease. By the early 1900’s, the United States began requiring every healthcare provider and laboratory to report all identified cases, with approximately 6,000 deaths being

The new trend of parents not having their children vaccinated for measles is causing harm to the child and contributing to future outbreaks of the disease.

Out of all the three diseases that the MMR vaccine builds immunization for, it is least effective for measles. Measles is a disease that is transmitted through saliva and can be active in water droplets in the air and on surfaces for hours after.4 Because of this, it spreads easily from person to person because the infected patient does not have to be touching anyone else to transmit the disease. Examples of this recently can be found in California and amongst the Amish community. To begin with, an amusement park in California had an outbreak of measles in 2015. Though the cause is unknown, it is generally believed that someone traveling from another country first brought the disease and then it spread to others who may have touched or breathed in droplets of his salive.2 From here, the infected people spread the disease until people were being affected throughout the whole state as well as in some sections of Oregon.1 Another case of something similar happening can be found in the Amish communities. In 2016, a total of 383 Amish were officially diagnosed with the measles mainly due to their beliefes in not being vaccinated.2 After

Unvaccinated people can cause outbreaks of viruses that have been eradicated. In late 2014 a measles outbreak occurred when an unvaccinated child who was a carrier of the disease visited Disneyland. This caused 173 people from seventeen different states to contract the virus that was eradicated from the United States in 2002. In order for measles to be under control 94-99% of the population must be vaccinated. With the recent trend of not vaccinating, measles, along with other once eradicated, or nearly eradicated diseases are making a come-back.

In December of 2014, an outbreak of measles, which started in Disneyland, resulted in nearly two hundred people being sickened across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The highly contagious respiratory disease spread for three months. Among those who contracted the illness, one developed severe pneumonia and multiple organ injury, while another suffered acute respiratory distress syndrome. So, why did an illness, which was purportedly eliminated sixteen years ago, experience a surge so dramatic that it caused more cases in 2014 than in the five preceding years combined? According to the CDC, the outbreak could be boiled down to one simple reason: “The majority of people were unvaccinated.” So while the California measles outbreak is a thing of the past, the fight to increase compliance with vaccinations continues. Although the benefits and safety of vaccinations are undisputed by the medical and scientific community, there are still sizeable groups of “anti-vaxxers” who refuse to vaccinate their children. These groups spread misconceptions, sometimes unknowingly, and become even more influential when coupled with the power of the internet and social media. Therefore, in order to increase compliance with routine vaccinations, the misconceptions of parents should be targeted, and legislation should be changed in order to prevent leniency and loopholes regarding vaccine exemptions.

One of the initial steps in finding a cure for measles was naming and withdraws of the germ that caused the disease. You know when you have the flu, chickenpox and pneumonia; those cause bacteria and virus. However, in 1920 people were sick and had the flu they didn’t know it was the influenza virus so they called it the Spanish flu. In 1920 Herbert McLean Evans discovered Vitamin E, Elmer V. McCollum discovered vitamin D, vitamins A, B, C, K, and various subtypes of each were also discovered during the 1920s. During 1920, measles was a common childhood illness.

a) Measles is not something of the past, nor is it a sickness constrained to creating nations. Today measles is one of the main sources of death of children around the world, regardless of the accessibility of a shabby, powerful antibody.

be less likely to be infected by the virus(Carson-DeWitt). Antibiotics are only given to the patient if

To start off, there are two types of measles. In this project I’m going to be talking about red measles or rubeola. What is measles? Measles is a very contagious, infectious disease. About 20 million people per year get measles. Measles could be transmitted from one person to another by just sneezing or coughing. It can also spread through the contact of mucus and saliva. What causes measles? Measles is caused by a virus called the measles virus (MeV). The measles virus is an enveloped, circular shaped RNA virus. The binomial nomenclature of this virus is Morbillivirus which is within the family Paramyxoviridae. The Measles virus has two important glycoproteins spikes attached to it. The first spike (fusion protein) is responsible for the fusion

Measles virus (MV) has been well established in the world, as the most transmissible viral agent in humankind and it’s considered as the primary cause of death in children globally. The persistent of Measles viral infection throughout the centuries has given the opportunity for scientists to investigate the Morbilivirus genus family where MV belongs. It has been found that every virus belonging to the Morbillivirus family, share a negative-strand linear RNA genome and a spherical envelope that surround the genome. In addition to that, all the virus species belonging to the Morbillivirus genus family, encode for eight proteins that are crucial for the invasion, multicipility and the survival of the virus [1]. This known virus family therefore is consisted of six species: Rinderpest Virus (RV), Phocine Distemper virus (PDV), Cetacean morbilliviruses (ceMV), Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPRV), Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) and Measles Virus (MeV). Apart from their common features however, these species show also to be phylogenetically related as it can be observed from the tree below (Fig 1.) An important observation is how closely MV is related with RPV and how least related is with CDV, showing a possible link between their infecting hosts [17].

The Latin name for measles is rubeola. The pathogen which causes the disease is a paramyxovirus, which is one of a group of RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses. Measles is a respiratory disease caused by a virus, and also comes out in a rash. The virus enters the body via the respiratory system, and grows in the cells at the back of the throat and in the cells that line the lungs, from there it then enters the blood stream and circulates the body.