Measles is caused by?

Appeared in: AIIMS BBSR SNO - 2019

Explanation

Measles is a highly contagious viral illness caused by the Rubeola virus.
The Rubeola virus is an RNA virus belonging to the genus Morbillivirus within the Paramyxoviridae family, as confirmed by medical literature (SRC_17537, SRC_17538).
The disease is also known as rubeola and spreads efficiently through airborne particles and direct contact (SRC_17537).

Why Other Options Were Wrong

Option A: Nipah virus is a Henipavirus, not a Morbillivirus. It is a zoonotic pathogen that causes severe encephalitis and respiratory illness, not measles.
Option C: Hendra virus is also a Henipavirus, closely related to Nipah virus. It primarily causes severe respiratory and neurological disease in horses and, rarely, in humans with close animal contact.
Option D: Pneumovirus is a genus that includes Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). RSV is a major cause of lower respiratory tract infections like bronchiolitis and pneumonia, especially in infants, but it does not cause measles (SRC_17537).

Related Visual

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Etiology of Measles as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
Nurses play a crucial role in measles prevention through vaccination (MMR vaccine), early identification of cases (recognizing Koplik's spots, rash, fever), and implementing airborne precautions for hospitalized patients to prevent nosocomial spread.
Understanding the different viruses is vital for differential diagnosis. A patient with fever and rash might have measles, but a history of animal contact or travel could point towards other zoonotic viruses like Nipah or Hendra.
What if? If a child presents with high fever, cough, and conjunctivitis but has a documented MMR vaccination history, the nurse should consider other causes of rash and fever, as vaccine failure is rare but possible, and other viral exanthems can mimic measles.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the core of the question, which is to name the causative agent of measles.
Recall or identify the scientific name for the measles virus from the options provided.
Evaluate each option. 'Rubeola virus' is the specific name for the measles virus.
Analyze the distractors. Nipah, Hendra, and Pneumovirus are all in the same broader family (Paramyxoviridae) or related families but belong to different genera and cause distinct diseases. This is a common distractor technique.
Confirm the association: Measles = Rubeola. This is a direct factual recall question.

Concept Tested & Keywords

Concept Tested: Etiology of Measles
Stem keywords: Measles, caused by
Lead-in keywords: BEST, MOST RELEVANT CLUE
Negative lead-in flag: false

Question ID

QX78deQMDu1d-K10wV8VUs

Reference Book

E6 Medicine Harrison 22e Part 1 p. 1575-1577

E6 Robert Boland, Marcia L. Verduin - Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Text of Psychiatry-Wolters Kluwer Health (2024) (pp 1-16525 of 16525) p. 2036-2038

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