A highly contagious airborne virus that causes fever and a spreading rash. Explore its illustrative 3D model, human context, and sources.
Measles spreads through the air when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. WHO describes a virus that infects the respiratory tract and then spreads through the body, with high fever, cough, runny nose and a body-wide rash. CDC states that up to 9 out of 10 unprotected people in close contact with someone who has measles become infected. This profile summarises possible illness; it cannot assess an individual infection.
CDC reports ear infections in about 1 in 10 children with measles and pneumonia in as many as 1 in 20 children, about 1 in 1,000 children developing encephalitis, and nearly 1 to 3 deaths per 1,000 infected children. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people with measles in the US is hospitalised. These are population figures for the groups CDC describes, not a personal risk score.
Measles morbillivirus · pleomorphic enveloped particle. A rounded measles-virus representative; variable particle outlines are simplified. The colours, proportions, protein shapes and visible counts are illustrative, not measured or an atomic reconstruction. Independent scientific review remains pending.
Source check: 2026-09-19. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.