measles

Also known as morbilli, measles, rubeola, measles virus infectious disease, Rubeola, Rubeola Infection, Measles virus infectious disease, obsolete Measles virus infectious disease

Measles (probably from Middle Dutch or Middle High German masel(e), meaning "blemish, blood blister") is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable infectious disease caused by measles virus. Other names include morbilli, rubeola, 9-day measles, red measles, and English measles.

OverviewAI-generated

Measles is a subject covered in the Commons gallery and category under the name "Measles." It is identified by the NCI Thesaurus ID "C96406" and the ICPC 2 ID "A71." The condition is classified under ICD-9-CM code "055."

The minimal incubation period in humans is 7 days, and the maximal incubation period in humans is 21 days. The basic reproduction number is 15. The number of deaths is 89780.

The subject is referenced by 1,859 other encyclopedia articles. PubMed contains 34522 entries for the query "measles."

Synthesized by Vinony from 13 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Key facts

Medical condition.name: Measles
Medical condition.image: RougeoleDP.jpg
Medical condition.caption: A child showing a day-four measles rash
Medical condition.field: Infectious disease
Medical condition.synonyms: Morbilli, rubeola, red measles, English measles
Medical condition.symptoms: Fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, rash
Medical condition.complications: Pneumonia, seizures, encephalitis, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, immunosuppression, hearing loss, blindness
Medical condition.onset: 10–12 days after exposure
Medical condition.duration: 7–10 days (not including complications)
Medical condition.causes: Measles virus
Medical condition.prevention: Measles vaccine
Medical condition.treatment: Supportive care
Medical condition.frequency: 10 million per year
Medical condition.deaths: 140,000+ (2018)

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

34,522 papers

Measles.ReviewLancet (London, England) · 2017Moss WJDOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31463-0
What's going on with measles?ReviewJournal of virology · 2024Moss WJ, Griffin DEDOI: 10.1128/jvi.00758-24
[Measles virus].ReviewUirusu · 2025Seki F, Takeda MDOI: 10.2222/jsv.75.13
Measles pathogenesis, immune suppression and animal models.ReviewCurrent opinion in virology · 2020Laksono BM, de Vries RD, Duprex WP et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.coviro.2020.03.002
Measles.ReviewThe New England journal of medicine · 2019Strebel PM, Orenstein WADOI: 10.1056/NEJMcp1905181
Measles: An Ongoing Threat.ReviewPediatric annals · 2025Popofsky S, Romero JRDOI: 10.3928/19382359-20250307-03
Measles again?Medicina clinica · 2024López-Perea NDOI: 10.1016/j.medcli.2024.05.021
Measles.ReviewLancet (London, England) · 2012Moss WJ, Griffin DEDOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62352-5

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Instance of: notifiable disease
Named after: red
Image: RougeoleDP.jpg
Number of deaths: 89780

Show 16 more facts

disease transmission process: airborne transmission
medical examination: polymerase chain reaction
topic's main category: Category:Measles
has immediate cause: measles virus
health specialty: infectious diseases
NCI Thesaurus ID: C96406
Commons gallery: Measles
ICPC 2 ID: A71
exact match: identifiers.org/doid/DOID:0050309
Commons category: Measles
minimal incubation period in humans: 7
maximal incubation period in humans: 21
ICD-9-CM: 055
basic reproduction number: 15
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
P8168: Güsten

Sources (11)

via Wikidata · CC0

~48 min read

Encyclopedic overview

28 sections

Contents

Signs and symptoms
Complications
Immune amnesia
Cause
Pathophysiology
Diagnosis
Laboratory testing
Prevention
Vitamin A and measles prevention
Treatment
Prognosis
Epidemiology
Europe
Americas
Canada
United States
Brazil
Southeast Asia
South Pacific
Samoa
Africa
Madagascar
Democratic Republic of Congo
History
Vaccination
Society and culture
References
External links

Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, runny nose, and inflamed eyes. Small white spots known as Koplik spots may form inside the mouth two or three days after the start of symptoms. A red, flat rash which usually starts on the face and then spreads to the rest of the body typically begins three to five days after the start of symptoms. Common complications include diarrhea (in 8% of cases), middle ear infection (7%), and pneumonia (6%). These occur in part due to measles-induced immunosuppression. Less commonly, seizures, blindness, or inflammation of the brain may occur.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “measles” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.