Why Measles Is So Hard To Notice Right Away: 3 Hidden Areas Where The Rash Will First Appear

Measles is a dangerous infectious disease that affects the cells of the respiratory system and contributes to the development of acute inflammatory processes – pneumonia, meningitis, encephalitis. Sometimes measles infection can even lead to death.

Today, Russia is experiencing a new wave of measles cases. The head of Rospotrebnazdor, Anna Popova, announced that virus outbreaks have been recorded in 44 regions of the country: and in some places the situation is more tense than in the whole state.

The most affordable and effective measure to prevent measles is vaccination, which is carried out once and even in early childhood. However, not everyone has such a vaccine, and many do not even know how to check whether they were vaccinated in childhood. That is why it will not be superfluous to know how measles manifests itself in order to notice its symptoms in time: to distinguish it from a cold with fever and take measures to speed up recovery.

Read also: Inject and forget: which vaccines should be taken as an adult?

First, measles makes itself felt on the mucous membranes.: the so-called Filatov-Koplik spots, similar to white-gray dots, cover the inner region of the cheeks. Also, red spots may appear in the mouth, on the soft palate. Such a symptom appears 1-2 days before the first rashes and a general deterioration in well-being, so it almost always goes unnoticed.

The first signs of a measles rash appear on the scalp . The measles rash has a bright red hue and is maculopapular in nature – that is, it protrudes above the surface of the skin and may look like allergic acne. However, unlike allergic rashes and rubella rash, another acute viral illness, measles spots tend to coalesce. This is how measles is most easily distinguished.

Another discrete area that should not be ignored – space behind the ears. First, the rash appears on the head, and only then it “descends” on the face and different parts of the body. It can affect quite a large amount of skin and may be limited to local areas. But the main thing is to carefully monitor the temperature and inflammatory symptoms of the disease so that measles does not turn into measles pneumonia and other dangerous diagnoses.