MEASLES
Even though in many lands this is a harmless infectious disease of childhood, in areas where it has only recently become known, for example among some American Indian tribes, the affected children often die. The causative agent is a virus, one of the submicroscopic entities that have been discovered only in more recent times. These viruses are even smaller than bacteria and cannot be seen under a normal microscope simply by colouring as can bacteria; only with the aid of modern electronic microscopes have scientists been able to study them. Even so, measles has always been considered an infectious disease because of the course the illness takes and the fact that children catch it so easily.
Most parents are familiar with the rash of pink-brownish blotches, accompanied by a high temperature. And yet, you might be uncertain as to the nature of the child’s illness in its early stages, unless you check the inner cheeks in the region of the molars. In a case of measles these areas are red, and a day or two before the rash breaks out red spots with tiny white spots in the middle of them, 2-3 mm in diameter, (so-called Koplik’s spots), will appear.
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