Measles is a common acute infectious disease in children. It is highly infectious and is characterized by papules, fever and respiratory symptoms.
The presence of measles virus antigen in mucous cells of catarrhal pharyngeal gargle was examined with fluorescentially labeled antibody. Viral nucleic acids in cells can also be detected by nucleic acid molecular hybridization.
Measles virus is spherical or filamentary, with a diameter of 120nm ~ 250nm. The core is single negative strand RNA, which is not segmented. The total length of the genome is about 16kb. The genome has 6 genes, N, P, M, F, H and L, encoding 6 structural and functional proteins respectively: nucleoprotein (NP), phosphoprotein (P), M protein (membrane protein, M), fusion protein (F), hemagglutinin, H) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.