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General health

Measles or not???

34 replies

sb34 · 28/07/2002 22:31

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susanmt · 28/07/2002 23:33

Phone your doctor again! Although it is most likely a simple viral infection, as the rash has got significantly worse since you were last seen then you should ask to be seen again! And as soon as possible - like tonight if you can, if you are really worried it is measles. Any halfway decent doctor will see a kid at any time of the day or night if the parents are really worried.
Hope everything works out fine. i'll be thinking of you.

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mears · 28/07/2002 23:35

Could be Scarletina - sounds very similar. If it is then there is antibiotic treatment because it is connected to strep throat infection. Go back to your GP. Did he check her throat?

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Marina · 28/07/2002 23:35

sb34, sorry to hear dd has what could be measles (sorry, I don't know if it is or not). Your GP should know that measles, because of its rarity and remote possibility of side effects, is a notifable disease, and if there is any chance it is measles, he should be paying more attention and trying to get a firm diagnosis, even if he "can't do anything". Anyone she has been in contact with ought to be informed as a courtesy, for a start. I'd ring again in the morning, even if she is feeling better, and ask him about this. In some parts of the UK, it is NOT that rare at the moment because of the low take-up of the MMR. I do hope she feels better soon - what a worry for you.

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sb34 · 28/07/2002 23:40

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sb34 · 28/07/2002 23:43

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susanmt · 29/07/2002 00:09

I really coundn't tell you if it can wait or not because I dont know. It probably can, he said there's nothing you can do, doesn't he? I dont know much about it. Just try to keep her cool and comfy.
Some doctors will not know what measles looks like as they have never seen it. My dh has been a doctor for 7 years and a GP for 3 1/2 of them, and he has never seen it.
It makes me really annoyed that a doctor cant see your kid in the middle of the night if you are worried - I know they all say they are busy but in n area like yours they probably only do on call one night in 30 or something like that. My dh works where we live, in remote rural Scotland and is on call one night in 2, and he would go and see a kid with a bad rash that parents were concerned about. AAAAArrrgh dont get me started!!!!
Do let us know how things go. (((hugs))) to you and your poor wee girly! My dd is 2 1/2 and had Roseola a couple of weeks ago and was miserable (though very excited about her spots!!) so I know what it's like a bit, but I wasn't worrying like you so I hope it all gets sorted out soon!

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mears · 29/07/2002 00:45

sb34 - as long as you can keep her temperature down and she is comfortable with no deterioration in her symptoms then you can wait until the morning. Good luck tomorrow ( or should I say today).

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bloss · 29/07/2002 02:59

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Mopsy · 29/07/2002 06:48

sb34
so sorry to hear what is happening, hope you and dd are okay; do let us know how things are today. thinking of you M x

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sb34 · 29/07/2002 12:26

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susanmt · 29/07/2002 13:03

Do let us know how she's doing sb34. Glad you got to see your doctor - imagine him saying it was really rare and then telling you there had been 4 local cases - that doesn't sound rare to me.!!

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sb34 · 29/07/2002 13:13

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susanmt · 29/07/2002 22:20

sb34 how is your dd tonight? Just wondering, and thinking about you and your sleepless nights!

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sb34 · 29/07/2002 23:51

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jemw · 30/07/2002 13:21

sb34

My dd had measles earlier this year at age 10 months.
No idea where she caught it from as not knowingly been in contact with anyone with measles.
Symptoms she had were generally under the weather for a couple of days (grizzly, runny nose and red eyes) helped with calpol, then 3rd day worse so got doctors appointment, that day she got a red blotchy rash over her head and moving down her body.
Doctor took one look at her and said " I have never seen a case of measles but that is definately measles - combination of rash, runny nose and conjuctivitus"

He said is viral so cannot treat but gave eye drops and amoxycillan to help with eyes and nose. Kept her regularly dosed with calpol and junior nurofen for next 3 days or so. The day after the rash appeared was the worse. He also informed environmental health and they came to do a mouth swab which is the only way of confirming it was measles.

Apparently symptoms are similar to a viral infection and they said they did quite a few tests at present as high profile due to MMR debates. about 1 in 3 were coming back as measles.

Infectious for 5 days after rash appeared, ds had had MMR and was okay to go to nursery though it did cause some panic there. Most kids at dd nursery picked it up as all too young for MMR so felt v guilty about that! They started o get it about a week after dd's spots appeared. One early sign to look for we were told was a rash starting behind the ears.

NHS were great and gave lots of advice over phone to me and other mums.
Environmental health were not so helpful, initially telling me that they didnt think it was measles as they had no cases of it in our borough only the neighbouring one!!

The rash started to go about 3 days after it appeared.

Sorry if this is a bit garbled but trying to think of everything to say. The mouth swab is the only way of knowing for sure so maybe you could ask your doctor for it?

Let me know if you have any other questions, hope your dd is doing okay.

jemw

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sb34 · 30/07/2002 16:18

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jemw · 31/07/2002 13:24

sb34, I was told that they can do the swab test up to 6 weeks after the rash appeared. It was done on dd about 5 days after the rash, and got the results about a week later, results generally take about 1-2 weeks but they rushed it through because of her having been at nursery - we caused a mini epidemic in our area,about 8-10 children caught it I think, though luckily no one seems to have had adverse affects. You could always check with local environmental health or NHS Direct about when to do the swab, I would have thought with 4 confirmed cases already they would want to know.

I think she did have a cough, in fact thinking about it, it was possibly the cough, rash and conjuctivitus combination the doctor said about. We also lost the sleep pattern having just got her sleeping through but she soon settled down again.

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sb34 · 01/08/2002 16:36

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jemw · 05/08/2002 13:29

sb34 - hows dd? any better

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sb34 · 05/08/2002 20:51

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Marina · 05/08/2002 20:53

sb34, I am so sorry to hear this. I hope she makes a quick recovery - they can surprise us on this front, getting over such things long before their poor frazzled parents do. Thinking of you.

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sb34 · 05/08/2002 20:58

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musica · 05/08/2002 20:59

It sounds like the diarrhoea could have been caused by the antibiotics - my ds was really ill having been given amoxicillin, with really bad diarrhoea, and lost lots of weight. But they pick up really quickly after.

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Marina · 06/08/2002 19:27

Musica, of course! sb34, we found that giving our son the contents of the powdered lactobacillus capsules you can get from health shops, after a course of antibiotics, helped settle his digestive system quickly. An alternative might be stirring one of those Yakult/Actimel little bottles into her porridge (assuming she's not lactose intolerant, sorry I don't remember). About a week of this did the trick for us.

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sb34 · 06/08/2002 21:35

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