Rubella is a highly contagious disease. It is easily spread from person to person by close contact or by droplets in the air. Children who catch rubella may experience a mild rash and a sore throat and adults (particularly pregnant women and their unborn babies) may be vulnerable to much more serious consequences. Women who contract the virus usually do so through contact with their own children or children of their friends who have not been vaccinated against rubella.

Why must you be wary of rubella during pregnancy?

The symptoms of rubella can appear to be mild but the disease becomes a much more serious matter if it is caught during pregnancy, when it can cause miscarriages and Congential Rubella Syndrome (CRS) in the unborn baby. CRS can potentially damage the sight, hearing, heart and brain of an unborn child. Maternal rubella caught in the first trimester causes this kind of damage in 90 per cent of cases.

I'm pregnant and I'm not sure if I've had the vaccine. What shall I do?

You will be offered a blood test early on in your pregnancy to assess whether or not you have the rubella antibodies. If you are not immune to rubella, you must keep away from anyone who has rubella, particularly during your first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
If you come into contact with someone with rubella, you should see your GP immediately. They will be able to diagnose rubella and may offer you a test to see if your baby has been affected.
If your baby has been affected by rubella, you will be encouraged to have some counselling and talk to your consultant, GP, nurse or midwife.

How can the MMR jab help prevent rubella?

It is recommended that all children have the MMR vaccine around 13 months of age and again before starting school. The reason rubella is included in the childhood immunisation programme is to prevent children becoming infectious and to stop them passing the rubella virus to their pregnant mothers or the pregnant mothers of friends.

It is also important to immunise women of childbearing age who have either not been immunised with a rubella-containing vaccine or those who do not have protective antibodies to rubella which is determined through pre-conception screening or antenatal screening.

January 2010

Share This...

Routine Vaccinations

Information about MMR

Popular...

Latest Articles

Simple Tips To Cut Shopping Bills

With families really beginning to feel the pinch of the credit crunch and with predictions of an impending recession, Gordon Brown is now suggesting Britons make cut backs to their weekly shopping in order to deal with the rising cost of food.

Stay At Home Dads

A new parenting report indicates that â€˜Stay At Home Dads' are on the increase with a 80% increase in the last year alone.

Immortalize le bump

Strangers, shop assistants, well meaning friends and family, everyone has an opinion of the size of le bump.

Twitter Competition Winners 2013

Below we'll be adding all the Twitter names of the people who win any of the competitions and giveaways we run on Twitter in the course of 2013.

Slapped Cheek Syndrome

Slapped Cheek Disease or Slapped Cheek Syndrome (erythema infectiosum) is the name given to a bright red rash that appears on the cheeks of people infected by parvovirus B19.