A Forty- Four Year - Old Immunized Woman with Maculopapular and Petechial Rash, Diagnosed as Measles: An Extremely Rare Presentation

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease, which affects mostly children and rarely adults, which results in a more severe presentation. After a prodromal phase (malaise, anorexia, and the classic triad of conjunctivitis, cough, and coryza and a high fever), enanthem (Koplik spot) appears at buccal mucosa and then, typical erythematous maculopapular rash happens. There are several reports of atypical measles in the adults who have been immunized by killed type vaccine, therefore, prior history of vaccination with the original killed - virus among individuals who present with maculopapular rash and fever do not rule out measles.
Here we report a 44 - year - old woman with fever, chills, myalgia, odynophagia, exudative pharyngitis, bilateral parotitis, anterior cervical lymphadenopathy, tender splenomegaly, conjunctival suffusion and disseminated pruritic erythematous maculopapular, as well as a petechial rash all over her body. She was evaluated mainly for infectious mononucleosis, acute human immunodeficiency virus infection, and acute viral hepatitis, when all investigations were negative for possible diagnoses, although she mentioned immunization against measles, evaluations for measles were done and she had positive IgM antibody with high titer and also positive measles virus RT - PCR.
The aim of this report is to emphasize that physicians should be aware of the atypical measles syndrome and entertain the diagnosis of measles in adults with a febrile illness and rash in order to make the most accurate diagnosis and prevent complications.