MEASLES
This is an acute, infectious disease characterized by a red eruption which appears on the fourth day. Measles is one of the most contagious of all the diseases of childhood. It may be acquired by direct contact with another case or by being in the room with a case. The infection may also be carried through the air and occasionally by a third person. Measles is more prevalent in the winter than in summer. In cities it often occurs in epidemics. The period of incubation is from ten days to three weeks, occurring generally at about two weeks after exposure.
The attack may begin with the child showing a languid attitude, complaining of headache. Then a cough develops, with nausea and fever at times. The fever is often high, reaching 104° F. on the second day. As a rule the fever gradually falls after the second day and becomes normal in almost a week. However, the temperature varies in different cases.
Complications.—Measles is not considered dangerous in itself, but the after-effects sometimes prove fatal. This is especially the case in broncho-pneumonia, which frequently develops during or after the attack.
The gastro-intestinal, as well as the respiratory, tract is attacked in measles, diarrhea being especially common. Very weak children have been known to develop gangrenous stomatitis; paralysis and tuberculosis[91] likewise develop in some cases as the direct result of measles.
Thus it is demonstrated that measles is not to be lightly treated. Even if it is not in itself fatal, the results of the disease are so dangerous that the care of the nurse is especially necessary. The great trouble is that so often a nurse is not in attendance and the child suffers through ignorance of the mother.
Dietetic Treatment.—The dietetic treatment of measles is important. For infants milk is the exclusive diet, the formula for bottle-fed babies having to be weakened on account of the catarrhal condition of the gastro-intestinal tract. For older children it is necessary to confine the diet to fluids as long as the fever lasts, and at times longer if the stomach gives evidence of digestional disturbances. Milk is the chief food, with milk soups, buttermilk, and koumiss used to vary the diet. Orangeade and lemonade may be given to allay thirst. A return to normal diet must be made gradually, giving cereal gruels, milk toast, and broth before the more solid articles of diet suitable to the age of the child. When there are complications they must be treated, as in whooping cough, according to their symptoms.