How does measles affect the eyes?

Are you curious about how a common childhood illness like measles affects the eyes? Oh, boy, do I have some bad news for you. Measles can wreak havoc on your peepers and cause some serious eye problems.

What is measles?

Before we delve into the effects of measles on our eyes, let’s first understand what this disease is all about.

Measles or rubeola is a highly contagious viral infection caused by the morbillivirus. The symptoms typically include high fever, coughing, runny nose, redness in the mouth/throat and rash all over your body. In severe cases it can even lead to complications such as encephalitis (swelling in brain) or pneumonia.

The virus spreads mainly through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person sneezes or coughs out particles in air.

A brief history lesson

Fun Fact: Did you know that before vaccines were developed against diseases like measles- around 2 million people died from it each year?

How does measles affect your eyes?

Wait a minute, hold up – did I say something earlier about “serious” eye problems? Yes ma’am/sir! Conjunctivitis (pink eye), keratitis (inflammation of cornea) are just some issues with which patients may present after contracting this virus.

Pink Eye Ain’t Cute

You’ve heard of pink-eye right (conjunctivitis) ? It’s characterised by redness/swelling of conjunctiva (eye’s thin outer membrane). You might also experience increased light sensitivity + discolouration/puffiness near eyelids. Lovely stuff

Pink-eye generally appears at around -7 days following onset of other symptoms (fever+cough+rash etc) – so if you’ve been feeling poorly recently…it could be coming

Keratitis: An inflammation of one’s cornea

Keratitis, which is inflammation in the cornea (the see-through tissue at front of your eyes) usually presents alongside pink-eye. It less commonly occurs on its own.

It can be pretty unpleasant and has symptoms such as light sensitivity, pain/burning sensation and some patients even experiencing diplopia (double vision).

Measle Eyelid Edema

Eyelid edema or swelling could also occur as a result from measles infection. This often appears around day 5 after onset of rash.

This comes with swellings above your eyelids that pulls them downwards resulting in “scale-like” appearance on skin below your lower lids.

But why does this happen?

So what about this pesky virus causes these ocular ailments? Well during initial stages of measles contraction, the morbillivirus attacks immune cells near an individual’s respiratory system. Once it starts to multiply – it unfortunately begins attacking other systemic areas such as one’s eyes!

I’ve Heard That Sleep Could Be A Factor(?)

What makes matters worse is those affected might experience significant sleep disturbances affecting quantity/quality too making things A LOT more irritating/symptoms seem worse than they actually are!

Is vaccination necessary?

Measles is highly contagious but definitely preventable via vaccines like MMR (measles mumps rubella vaccine) while pregnant women can take MR (Mealses Rubella Vaccine).

Parents typically have their offspring vaccinated against measles by 15 months old because children younger than six months are especially vulnerable .
Countries/states pushed for vaccines due to rising numbers preliminary study concluding that vaccination rates had gone down/is common public health issue in modern society

In conclusion contracting measles isn’t exactly child’s play- not only do you feel sickly & feverish with red bumpety bumps…your eyesight would go through quite the turbulence too! So if you haven’t had your measles vaccine yet, do yourself a favor and get it!

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