The word in English probably originated from mesel, a word no longer used in English. It referred to skin diseases like leprosy and was used in the Middle Ages. Once again one of the first uses of the word Measles in English came in John Trevisa translation of an encyclopaedia way back in 1398. He wrote that various diseases induce a change to the colour of the skin, citing measles as one example. There was a further description later by Thomas Elyot (for a little more information on him, refer to the word of the day aristocrat). Not only did he compile a dictionary, and write on politics, but also put together one of the first popular books on medicine in English called The Castell of Health. In a list of diseases, he lists both smallpox and measles.
Measles is a very contagious viral disease and a real killer, especially to communities that had never experienced it. In 1529, it knocked off two thirds of the local population in Cuba and shortly after ravaged Central Mexico. In the mid-1800s many people in Hawaii and also in Fiji died as a result of the disease. In 2000, the World Health Organization reported over 500,000 deaths. As a result of a vaccine against measles, the annual figure had been reduced to approximately 140,000 in 2010.
