Isolation required for a patient with measles is?

TMC Staff Nurse - 2019

Applied Microbiology & Infection control

Easy

Appeared in: TMC Staff Nurse - 2019

Explanation

Measles is highly infectious and communicable from about 4 days before to 4-5 days after the rash appears.
To effectively prevent transmission, the isolation period must cover this entire duration.
An isolation period of 7 days after the onset of the rash is a standard public health recommendation that provides a safe margin to ensure the patient is no longer infectious.
This practice is supported by guidelines that aim to contain one of the most contagious viral diseases.

Option A: An isolation period of 2 days is far too short. The patient remains highly infectious for several days after the rash appears.
Option B: While the infectious period typically ends around 4-5 days after the rash, isolating for only 5 days provides little to no safety margin. A longer period is recommended to account for variations in viral shedding.
Option D: An isolation period of 15 days is unnecessarily long for an immunocompetent patient with measles. It leads to inefficient use of healthcare resources and prolonged patient isolation without additional public health benefit.

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: Use the key finding related to Isolation period and precautions for measles to guide bedside assessment, documentation, and the next nursing action.
Nurses must be able to immediately implement Airborne Precautions for any patient with suspected measles to prevent nosocomial (hospital-acquired) transmission. This includes placing the patient in a negative-pressure room and using an N95 respirator.
A key nursing responsibility is to verify the immune status of all healthcare staff and restrict susceptible individuals from entering the patient's room to protect both staff and other patients.
What if? If the patient with measles is severely immunocompromised (e.g., has leukemia or HIV), they may shed the virus for a longer period. In such cases, airborne precautions should be maintained for the entire duration of the illness, not just a fixed number of days.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the keywords in the question: 'Isolation required' and 'measles'. This tells you the question is about infection control for a specific disease.
This is a factual recall question. You need to access your knowledge of communicable disease guidelines.
Recall the period of communicability for measles. The key is knowing it starts before the rash and continues for several days after.
Evaluate the options. The correct isolation period must be long enough to safely cover the time the person is infectious.
Eliminate options that are clearly too short (2 days) or excessively long (15 days) for a standard case.
Compare the remaining options (5 days vs. 7 days). The standard recommendation usually includes a safety margin, making 7 days a more likely correct answer than 5 days, which is the bare minimum.

Concept Tested & Keywords

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