Task 3: Rubeola Virus

SZT 1 - Task 3
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WGU
SZT 1

January 19, 2014
SZT 1 - Task 3

Rubeola

Rubeola, or measles, is a communicable disease that is highly contagious and easily spread from person to person through close physical contact or direct contact with infected bodily secretions. “Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family” ("Measles," 2013). Paramyxoviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses that infect respiratory cells. If an infected individual coughs or sneezes they expel mucous membrane cells within their secretions. The virus stays active and therefore contagious for up to 2 hours in the air and on surfaces. People can contract the illness by touching contaminated surfaces and then transferring the infected
It begins with a fever greater than 100.4F, runny nose, cough, conjunctivitis, malaise, and white spots inside the cheeks. A rash follows that typically starts on the head and migrates downward to the hands and feet. The rash typically remains for 5-6 days and then fades. Dehydration often results secondary to the fever. Serious complications can happen and are more common in developing countries where malnourishment and vitamin A deficiencies are more prevalent. One in ten cases results in ear infections, which is the most common secondary infection seen globally. However, in developing countries, pneumonia and diarrhea are seen in one in five cases. A severe complication that can result from a measles infection is encephalitis. Encephalitis is swelling in the brain, it starts with the high fever and headaches and progresses to loss of motor function, cognitive impairments, seizures, blindness and eventually death. Death secondary to measles is caused by these secondary infections and severe complications. Should a person exposed to measles survive the disease process they will acquire natural immunity to the
However, due to ease of global travel and the disease prevalence outside the U.S., measles cases continue to occur within our borders. The disease was the cause of approximately 158,000 deaths worldwide in 2011, the majority of which were children under 5 years of age. During the same year only 222 total cases were reported in the U.S. with no deaths resulting. These cases occurred in 17 separate areas and in each instance the primary infection was found to have originated outside of U.S. borders. The United States has an overall vaccination rate for measles of 90.8% of children having received initial immunization by 35 months of age per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The elimination of the disease process within the U.S. can be attributed to the high vaccination rate