The disease rubella is caused by the rubella virus from the family matonaviridae. Rubella spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Also, if a woman is infected with rubella while she is pregnant, she can pass it to her developing baby and cause serious harm.
The signs and symptoms of rubella are often difficult to notice, especially in children. Signs and symptoms generally appear between two and three weeks after exposure to the virus. They usually last about one to five days and may include:
▪️Mild fever of 102 F or lower
▪️Headache
▪️Stuffy or runny nose
▪️Inflamed, red eyes
▪️Enlarged, tender lymph nodes at the base of the skull, the back of the neck and behind the ears
▪️A fine, pink rash that begins on the face and quickly spreads to the trunk and then the arms and legs, before disappearing in the same sequence
▪️Aching joints, especially in young women
▪️Some adults may also have a headache, pink eye, and general discomfort before the rash appears.
No treatment will shorten the course of rubella infection, and symptoms don't usually need to be treated because they're often mild. However, doctors often recommend isolation from others — especially pregnant women — during the infectious period.
Mild symptoms can be managed with bed rest and medicines for fever, such as acetaminophen.
Rubella is the most dangerous for pregnant women. Infection with rubella virus causes the most severe damage when the mother is infected early in pregnancy, especially in the first 12 weeks.
A mother who has been infected with rubella and is pregnant develops congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). If she doesn't miscarry or experience a stillbirth, her developing baby is at risk for severe birth defects with devastating, lifelong consequences. CRS can affect almost everything in the developing baby’s body.
The most common birth defects from CRS can include:
▪️Deafness
▪️Cataracts
▪️Heart defects
▪️Intellectual disabilities
▪️Liver and spleen damage
▪️Low birth weight
▪️Skin rash at birth
Less common complications from CRS can include:
▪️Glaucoma
▪️Brain damage
▪️Thyroid and other hormone problems
▪️Inflammation of the lungs
Although specific symptoms can be treated, there is no cure for CRS.
German physician Friedrich Hoffmann was the first to give a clinical description of the disease that would later come to be known as rubella. It was first called German measles and was known that way for the next one hundred years. In 1841, after an outbreak in an India boys' school, rubella appeared as the suggested name. Rubella means "little red".
The rubella virus was eventually isolated in 1960 by Thomas Weller, MD. His 10 year old son contracted a severe case of rubella so he inoculated cultures of human cells with his son’s urine, and was eventually able to isolate the causative agent. However, Weller came to this discovery about the same time as several other researchers. Rubella's time had come.
The first rubella vaccine was licensed in 1969. 10 years later this first vaccine was replaced in the United States by American physician Stanley A. Plotkin’s newly licensed RA27/3 vaccine, which had been used in Europe for years and provided superior protection to that of the earlier vaccines. This new updated vaccine also replaced the original rubella vaccine in the combined MMR shot, and is still used today.
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