Our guide gives you the facts, symptoms,treatment and more serious problems associated with measles.

The Facts

* Most common in children aged one to four.

* It is caught through direct contact with an infected person or through the air.

* Around 90 per cent of people who have not been immunised or had it before, develop the disease if they live with an infected person.

* Measles is at its most infectious before the rash appears.

* Symptoms develop nine to 11 days after contact with an infected person and last up to 14 days from the first signs to the end of the rash.

Symptoms

All or some of the following, which may last up to eight days:

* Irritability.

* Runny nose.

* Conjunctivitis (red eyes).

* Hacking cough.

* Increasing fever which comes and goes.

* Rash starts from day four and fever peaks at around 40.6 degrees centigrade (105 farenheit).

* Rash, of red or brown blotches, spreads down from forehead over face, neck and body and last from four to seven days.

* Diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain can also occur.

Treatment

* Paracetamol to reduce fever and lots of clear fluids to replace fluids lost during fever.

* Children should be monitored and doctors consulted.

Complications

Less severe can include:

* Breathing difficulties (croup).

* Ear infections.

* Viral and bacterial lung infections.

* Severe cough.

* Eye infections.

More serious problems:

* Inflammation of the brain around two to six days after appearance of rash.

* Progressive brain infection (subacute sclerosing pan-encephalomyelitis).

* Loss or premature birth in pregnant women.