Dr. Fredda Branyon My life's mission is to educate people about the power of HOPE.

At last, the long awaited summer is here! The beach and tanned skin you’ve been dreaming about last winter is finally going to happen. But how can you enjoy summer if you catch one of these common summer diseases?

Here’s a List of the 5 Common Summer Diseases you should look out for.

Measles Measles are also known as morbilli, rubeola, or red measles and caused by measles virus. This highly contagious virus is spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Symptoms: The early symptoms include high fever, runny nose, swollen eyelids, watery eyes, and sneezing. A red-brown spotty rash will appear several days after the fever starts. This rash starts behind the ears, spreads to the head and neck before spreading to the rest of the body.

Precaution: Measles, Mumps and Rubella or simply MMR vaccine is the most effective way of preventing measles. When your child reaches 13 months old, that’s when the first MMR vaccination is routinely given and the second dose is usually given to children between the ages of four and five. The MMR vaccine can also be given to adults and 6-13 month old children if they are at risk of catching measles.

Chickenpox Also known as varicella and caused by varicella zoster virus. Just like measles, chickenpox is easily spread through coughs and sneezes of an infected person

Symptoms: Fever, headache and sore throat are some of the first symptoms. A rash like blister will start to appear on the face, chest and back and then spreads to the rest of the body after about a day or two. The patient can resume their daily activities when the blisters burst after about 2 days and once they crust over. Here is the good part, people usually get the disease once due to the natural immunity the first attack confers you.

Precaution: Against this virus, there is a vaccine available to protect yourself. You can also prevent this disease by just doing some simple precautions like washing your hands thoroughly after having contact with anyone or visiting crowded places. Isolating affected individuals can also prevent the spread of chickenpox.

Mumps Also known as epidemic parotitis and caused by the mumps virus. This is also spread through coughs and sneezes of an infected person. Sharing of food and drinks can also spread this virus.

Symptoms: Fever, headache, muscle pain and feeling tired are the initial signs and symptoms. This is followed by swelling up of the infected person’s salivary gland at the base of the neck.

Precaution: Just like the measles, the most preventative measure against mumps is the MMR vaccine.

Typhoid Simply known as Typhoid fever. It is a bacterial infection due to Salmonella typhi.

Symptoms: The common symptoms include high fever over several days, weakness, abdominal pain, constipation and headaches while the uncommon symptoms are diarrhea and vomiting. These symptoms may last weeks or months without treatments and without being affected, other people may carry the bacteria. These people are called ‘carriers’ and they are still able to spread the disease to other.

Precaution: To protect yourself from typhoid, there are two types of vaccines available. The first vaccine uses the killed bacteria, and is injected into a person. The second vaccine is the attenuated or weakened bacterium that is administered in the form of medicine or a pill.

Dr. Fredda Branyon My life's mission is to educate people about the power of HOPE. For other health related articles, visit Fredda Branyon’s Blog