Explaining measles isolation and a pregnant contact — OSCE

Candidate instructions (8-minute station)

You are the paediatric registrar in the clinic. A 4-year-old child has a PCR-confirmed diagnosis of measles after a febrile prodrome with the 3 C's, Koplik spots and a cephalocaudal rash. The child is recovering well at home. The child has never been vaccinated, and the family recently returned from a region with an ongoing measles outbreak. ^[5]

Your tasks are: ^[1]

1. Explain the diagnosis of measles and what the illness will look like over the coming days, in plain language. ^[5]
2. Explain the airborne-isolation and school-exclusion plan, and why it matters even though the child is recovering. ^[1]
3. Explain why the mother — who is eight weeks pregnant — needs urgent serological assessment, and the risk that a measles-and-rubella co-exposure could pose to the unborn baby. ^[6]
4. Address the parent's question of how the child caught measles at all, and what the family's vaccination plan should be now. ^[8]

You are not expected to prescribe specific antenatal management yourself — flag that the mother needs same-day review by the maternity team because the gestational risk window is narrow. ^[6]