Rubella

This article is about the disease. For the virus, see rubella virus.
Rubella
German measles, three-day-measles

A rash due to rubella on a child's back. The area affected is similar to that of measles but the rash is less intensely red.
Classification and external resources
Specialty Infectious disease
ICD-10 B06
ICD-9-CM 056
DiseasesDB 11719
MedlinePlus 001574
eMedicine emerg/388 ped/2025 derm/380
Patient UK Rubella
MeSH D012409

Rubella, also known as German measles or three-day measles,[1] is an infection caused by the rubella virus.[2] This disease is often mild with half of people not realizing that they are sick.[3][4] A rash may start around two weeks after exposure and last for three days. It usually starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body. The rash is not as bright as that of measles and is sometimes itchy. Swollen lymph nodes are common and may last a few weeks.[4] A fever, sore throat, and fatigue may also occur.[4][5] In adults joint pain is common. Complications may include bleeding problems, testicular swelling, and inflammation of nerves.[4] Infection during early pregnancy may result in a child born with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) or miscarriage. Symptoms of CRS include problems with the eyes such as cataracts, ears such as deafness, heart, and brain. Problems are rare after the 20th week of pregnancy.[2]

Rubella is usually spread through the air via coughs of people who are infected.[2][6] People are infectious during the week before and after the appearance of the rash. Babies with CRS may spread the virus for more than a year.[4] Only humans are infected.[2] Insects do not spread the disease.[4] Once recovered, people are immune to future infections. Testing is available that can verify immunity.[2] Diagnosis is confirmed by finding the virus in the blood, throat, or urine. Testing the blood for antibodies may also be useful.[4]

Rubella is preventable with the rubella vaccine with a single dose being more than 95% effective.[2] Often it is given in combination with the measles vaccine and mumps vaccine, known as the MMR vaccine.[4] With a population vaccination rate of less than 80%, however, more women might make it to childbearing age without developing immunity and issues could increase.[2] Once infected there is no specific treatment.[5]

Rubella is a common infection in many areas of the world.[5] Each year about 100,000 cases of congenital rubella syndrome occur.[2] Rates of disease have decreased in many areas as a result of vaccination.[3][5] There are ongoing efforts to eliminate the disease globally.[2] In April, 2015 the World Health Organization declared the Americas free of rubella transmission.[7][8] The name "rubella" is from Latin and means little red. It was first described as a separate disease by German physicians in 1814 resulting in the name "German measles."[4]

Signs and symptoms

Young boy displaying the characteristic maculopapular rash of rubella.[9]
Generalized rash on the abdomen due to rubella

Rubella has symptoms that are similar to those of flu. However, the primary symptom of rubella virus infection is the appearance of a rash (exanthem) on the face which spreads to the trunk and limbs and usually fades after three days (that is why it is often referred to as three-day measles). The facial rash usually clears as it spreads to other parts of the body. Other symptoms include low grade fever, swollen glands (sub occipital & posterior cervical lymphadenopathy), joint pains, headache, and conjunctivitis.[10]

The swollen glands or lymph nodes can persist for up to a week and the fever rarely rises above 38 ºC (100.4 ºF). The rash of German measles is typically pink or light red. The rash causes itching and often lasts for about three days. The rash disappears after a few days with no staining or peeling of the skin. When the rash clears up, the skin might shed in very small flakes where the rash covered it. Forchheimer's sign occurs in 20% of cases, and is characterized by small, red papules on the area of the soft palate.[11]

Rubella can affect anyone of any age and is generally a mild disease, rare in infants or those over the age of 40. The older the person is the more severe the symptoms are likely to be. Up to 60% of older girls or women experience joint pain or arthritic type symptoms with rubella.[12]

In children rubella normally causes symptoms which last two days and include:[13]

In older children and adults additional symptoms may be present including:[13]

Serious problems can occur including the following:

Coryza in rubella may convert to pneumonia, either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia, and bronchitis (either viral bronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis).[16]

Congenital rubella syndrome

Cataracts due to congenital rubella syndrome

Rubella can cause congenital rubella syndrome in the newborn. The syndrome (CRS) follows intrauterine infection by the rubella virus and comprises cardiac, cerebral, ophthalmic and auditory defects.[17] It may also cause prematurity, low birth weight, and neonatal thrombocytopenia, anemia and hepatitis. The risk of major defects or organogenesis is highest for infection in the first trimester. CRS is the main reason a vaccine for rubella was developed.[18]

Many mothers who contract rubella within the first critical trimester either have a miscarriage or a stillborn baby. If the fetus survives the infection, it can be born with severe heart disorders (Patent ductus arteriosus being the most common), blindness, deafness, or other life-threatening organ disorders. The skin manifestations are called "blueberry muffin lesions".[18] For these reasons, rubella is included on the TORCH complex of perinatal infections.

About 100,000 cases of this condition occur each year.[2]

Cause

Main article: Rubella virus
Transmission electron micrograph of rubella virus

The disease is caused by Rubella virus, a togavirus that is enveloped and has a single-stranded RNA genome.[19] The virus is transmitted by the respiratory route and replicates in the nasopharynx and lymph nodes. The virus is found in the blood 5 to 7 days after infection and spreads throughout the body. The virus has teratogenic properties and is capable of crossing the placenta and infecting the fetus where it stops cells from developing or destroys them.[10] During this incubation period, the patient is contagious typically for about one week before he/she develops a rash and for about one week thereafter.

Increased susceptibility to infection might be inherited as there is some indication that HLA-A1 or factors surrounding A1 on extended haplotypes are involved in virus infection or non-resolution of the disease.[20] [21]

Diagnosis

Rubella virus specific IgM antibodies are present in people recently infected by Rubella virus but these antibodies can persist for over a year and a positive test result needs to be interpreted with caution.[22] The presence of these antibodies along with, or a short time after, the characteristic rash confirms the diagnosis.[23]

Prevention

Further information: MMR vaccine

Rubella infections are prevented by active immunisation programs using live, disabled virus vaccines. Two live attenuated virus vaccines, RA 27/3 and Cendehill strains, were effective in the prevention of adult disease. However their use in prepubertile females did not produce a significant fall in the overall incidence rate of CRS in the UK. Reductions were only achieved by immunisation of all children.

The vaccine is now usually given as part of the MMR vaccine. The WHO recommends the first dose be given at 12 to 18 months of age with a second dose at 36 months. Pregnant women are usually tested for immunity to rubella early on. Women found to be susceptible are not vaccinated until after the baby is born because the vaccine contains live virus.[24]

The immunisation program has been quite successful. Cuba declared the disease eliminated in the 1990s, and in 2004 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that both the congenital and acquired forms of rubella had been eliminated from the United States.[25][26]

Screening for rubella susceptibility by history of vaccination or by serology is recommended in the United States for all women of childbearing age at their first preconception counseling visit to reduce incidence of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS).[27] It is recommended that all susceptible non-pregnant women of childbearing age should be offered rubella vaccination.[27] Due to concerns about possible teratogenicity, use of MMR vaccine is not recommended during pregnancy.[27] Instead, susceptible pregnant women should be vaccinated as soon as possible in the postpartum period.[27]

Treatment

There is no specific treatment for Rubella; however, management is a matter of responding to symptoms to diminish discomfort. Treatment of newborn babies is focused on management of the complications. Congenital heart defects and cataracts can be corrected by direct surgery.[28]

Management for ocular congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) is similar to that for age-related macular degeneration, including counseling, regular monitoring, and the provision of low vision devices, if required.[29]

Prognosis

Rubella infection of children and adults is usually mild, self-limiting and often asymptomatic. The prognosis in children born with CRS is poor.[30]

Epidemiology

Rubella is a disease that occurs worldwide. The virus tends to peak during the spring in countries with temperate climates. Before the vaccine to rubella was introduced in 1969, widespread outbreaks usually occurred every 6–9 years in the United States and 3–5 years in Europe, mostly affecting children in the 5-9 year old age group.[31] Since the introduction of vaccine, occurrences have become rare in those countries with high uptake rates.

Vaccination has interrupted the transmission of rubella in the Americas: no endemic case has been observed since February 2009.[32] Since the virus can always be reintroduced from other continents, the population still need to remain vaccinated to keep the western hemisphere free of rubella. During the epidemic in the U.S. between 1962–1965, rubella virus infections during pregnancy were estimated to have caused 30,000 still births and 20,000 children to be born impaired or disabled as a result of CRS.[33][34] Universal immunisation producing a high level of herd immunity is important in the control of epidemics of rubella.[35]

In the UK, there remains a large population of men susceptible to rubella who have not been vaccinated. Outbreaks of rubella occurred amongst many young men in the UK in 1993 and in 1996 the infection was transmitted to pregnant women, many of whom were immigrants and were susceptible. Outbreaks still arise, usually in developing countries where the vaccine is not as accessible.[36]

In Japan, 15,000 cases of rubella and 43 cases of congenital rubella syndrome were reported to the National Epidemiological Surveillance of Infectious Diseases between October 15, 2012, and March 2, 2014 during the 2012–13 rubella outbreak in Japan. They mainly occurred in men of ages 31 to 51 and young adults aged 24–34.[37]

History

Rubella was first described in the mid-eighteenth century. Friedrich Hoffmann made the first clinical description of rubella in 1740,[38] which was confirmed by de Bergen in 1752 and Orlow in 1758.[39]

In 1814, George de Maton first suggested that it be considered a disease distinct from both measles and scarlet fever. All these physicians were German, and the disease was known as Rötheln (contemporary German Röteln), hence the common name of "German measles".[40] Henry Veale, an English Royal Artillery surgeon, described an outbreak in India. He coined the name "rubella" (from the Latin word, meaning "little red") in 1866.[38][41][42][43]

It was formally recognised as an individual entity in 1881, at the International Congress of Medicine in London.[44] In 1914, Alfred Fabian Hess theorised that rubella was caused by a virus, based on work with monkeys.[45] In 1938, Hiro and Tosaka confirmed this by passing the disease to children using filtered nasal washings from acute cases.[42]

In 1940, there was a widespread epidemic of rubella in Australia. Subsequently, ophthalmologist Norman McAllister Gregg found 78 cases of congenital cataracts in infants and 68 of them were born to mothers who had caught rubella in early pregnancy.[41][42] Gregg published an account, Congenital Cataract Following German Measles in the Mother, in 1941. He described a variety of problems now known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) and noticed that the earlier the mother was infected, the worse the damage was. Since no vaccine was yet available, some popular magazines promoted the idea of "German measles parties" for infected children to spread the disease to other children (especially girls) to immunize them for life and protect them from later catching the disease when pregnant.[46] The virus was isolated in tissue culture in 1962 by two separate groups led by physicians Parkman and Weller.[41][43]

There was a pandemic of rubella between 1962 and 1965, starting in Europe and spreading to the United States.[43] In the years 1964–65, the United States had an estimated 12.5 million rubella cases. This led to 11,000 miscarriages or therapeutic abortions and 20,000 cases of congenital rubella syndrome. Of these, 2,100 died as neonates, 12,000 were deaf, 3,580 were blind, and 1,800 were mentally retarded. In New York alone, CRS affected 1% of all births [47][48]

In 1969 a live attenuated virus vaccine was licensed.[42] In the early 1970s, a triple vaccine containing attenuated measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) viruses was introduced.[43] By 2006, confirmed cases in the Americas had dropped below 3000 a year. However, a 2007 outbreak in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile pushed the cases to 13,000 that year.[7]

On January 22, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization declared and certified Colombia free of the rubella and became the first Latin American country to eliminate the disease within its borders.[49][50] On April 29, 2015, the Americas became the first WHO region to officially eradicate the disease. The last non-imported cases occurred in 2009 in Argentina and Brazil. Pan-American Health Organization director remarked "The fight against rubella has taken more than 15 years, but it has paid off with what I believe will be one of the most important pan-American public health achievements of the 21st Century."[51] The declaration was made after 165 million health records and genetically confirming that all recent cases were caused by known imported strains of the virus. Rubella is still common in some regions of the world and Susan E. Reef, head of a global immunization effort, said there was no chance it would be eradicated worldwide before 2020.[7] Rubella is the third disease to be eradicated from the western hemisphere with vaccination after Smallpox and Polio.[7][8]

Etymology

The name rubella is sometimes confused with rubeola, an alternative name for measles in English-speaking countries; the diseases are unrelated.[52][53] In some other European languages, like Spanish, rubella and rubeola are synonyms, and rubeola is not an alternative name for measles.[54] Thus, in Spanish, "rubeola" refers to rubella and "sarampión" refers to measles.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Neighbors, M; Tannehill-Jones, R (2010). "Childhood diseases and disorders". Human diseases (3rd ed.). Clifton Park, New York: Delmar, Cengage Learning. pp. 457–79. ISBN 978-1-4354-2751-8.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Lambert, N; Strebel, P; Orenstein, W; Icenogle, J; Poland, GA (7 January 2015). "Rubella.". Lancet. 385: 2297–307. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60539-0. PMID 25576992.
  3. 1 2 "Rubella vaccines: WHO position paper." (PDF). Wkly Epidemiol Rec. 86 (29): 301–16. 15 July 2011. PMID 21766537.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Atkinson, William (2011). Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (12 ed.). Public Health Foundation. pp. 301–323. ISBN 9780983263135. Retrieved Mar 2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. 1 2 3 4 Huong McLean (2014). "3 Infectious Diseases Related To Travel". CDC health information for international travel 2014 : the yellow book. ISBN 9780199948499.
  6. ↑ "Rubella (German Measles, Three-Day Measles)". cdc.gov. December 17, 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Donald G. McNeil Jr. (April 29, 2015). "Rubella Has Been Eliminated From the Americas, Health Officials Say". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Americas region is declared the world's first to eliminate rubella". PAHO. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  9. ↑ "Public Health Image Library (PHIL)". Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 1966. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  10. 1 2 Edlich RF, Winters KL, Long WB, Gubler KD (2005). "Rubella and congenital rubella (German measles)". J Long Term Eff Med Implants. 15 (3): 319–28. doi:10.1615/JLongTermEffMedImplants.v15.i3.80. PMID 16022642.
  11. ↑ Robert Kliegman, Waldo E. Nelson, Hal B. Jenson, Karen J. Marcdante, M.D., Richard E. Behrman. Nelson Essentials of Pediatrics, page 467. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4160-0159-1.
  12. ↑ Robert R. Jarrett. "Numbered Diseases of Childhood: THIRD Disease – Rubella". Pediatric House Calls. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  13. 1 2 Marissa Selner; Winnie Yu (July 25, 2012). "German Measles (Rubella)". Healthline.
  14. ↑ http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/skin/german_measles.html
  15. ↑ "Rubella: Complications". Diseases and Conditions. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. 13 May 2015.
  16. ↑ Michael, M. (1908). "Rubella: Report of Epidemic of Eighty Cases". In Treat, E.B. Archives of Pediatrics. p. 604.
  17. ↑ Atreya CD, Mohan KV, Kulkarni S (2004). "Rubella virus and birth defects: molecular insights into the viral teratogenesis at the cellular level". Birth Defects Res. Part a Clin. Mol. Teratol. 70 (7): 431–7. doi:10.1002/bdra.20045. PMID 15259032.
  18. 1 2 De Santis M, Cavaliere AF, Straface G, Caruso A (2006). "Rubella infection in pregnancy". Reprod. Toxicol. 21 (4): 390–8. doi:10.1016/j.reprotox.2005.01.014. PMID 16580940.
  19. ↑ Frey TK (1994). "Molecular biology of rubella virus". Adv. Virus Res. 44: 69–160. doi:10.1016/S0065-3527(08)60328-0. PMID 7817880.
  20. ↑ Forrest JM, Turnbull FM, Sholler GF, et al. (2002). "Gregg's congenital rubella patients 60 years later". Med. J. Aust. 177 (11-12): 664–7. PMID 12463994.
  21. ↑ Honeyman MC, Dorman DC, Menser MA, Forrest JM, Guinan JJ, Clark P (February 1975). "HL-A antigens in congenital rubella and the role of antigens 1 and 8 in the epidemiology of natural rubella". Tissue Antigens. 5 (1): 12–8. doi:10.1111/j.1399-0039.1975.tb00520.x. PMID 1138435.
  22. ↑ Best JM (2007). "Rubella". Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 12 (3): 182–92. doi:10.1016/j.siny.2007.01.017. PMID 17337363.
  23. ↑ Stegmann BJ, Carey JC (2002). "TORCH Infections. Toxoplasmosis, Other (syphilis, varicella-zoster, parvovirus B19), Rubella, Cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Herpes infections". Curr Women's Health Rep. 2 (4): 253–8. PMID 12150751.
  24. ↑ Watson JC, Hadler SC, Dykewicz CA, Reef S, Phillips L (1998). "Measles, mumps, and rubella—vaccine use and strategies for elimination of measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome and control of mumps: recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)". MMWR Recomm Rep. 47 (RR-8): 1–57. PMID 9639369.
  25. ↑ Dayan GH, Castillo-Solórzano C, Nava M, et al. (2006). "Efforts at rubella elimination in the United States: the impact of hemispheric rubella control". Clin. Infect. Dis. 43 (Suppl 3): S158–63. doi:10.1086/505949. PMID 16998776.
  26. ↑ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2005). "Elimination of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome—United States, 1969–2004". MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 54 (11): 279–82. PMID 15788995.
  27. 1 2 3 4 Health Care Guideline: Routine Prenatal Care. Fourteenth Edition. By the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement July 2010.
  28. ↑ Khandekar R, Sudhan A, Jain BK, Shrivastav K, Sachan R (2007). "Pediatric cataract and surgery outcomes in Central India: a hospital based study". Indian J Med Sci. 61 (1): 15–22. doi:10.4103/0019-5359.29593. PMID 17197734.
  29. ↑ Weisinger HS, Pesudovs K (2002). "Optical complications in congenital rubella syndrome". Optometry. 73 (7): 418–24. PMID 12365660.
  30. ↑ Freij BJ, South MA, Sever JL (1988). "Maternal rubella and the congenital rubella syndrome". Clin Perinatol. 15 (2): 247–57. PMID 3288422.
  31. ↑ Reef SE, Frey TK, Theall K, et al. (2002). "The changing epidemiology of rubella in the 1990s: on the verge of elimination and new challenges for control and prevention". JAMA. 287 (4): 464–72. doi:10.1001/jama.287.4.464. PMID 11798368.
  32. ↑ Accessed 2010-04-10.
  33. ↑ Plotkin SA (2001). "Rubella eradication". Vaccine. 19 (25-26): 3311–9. doi:10.1016/S0264-410X(01)00073-1. PMID 11348695.
  34. ↑ Cooper, L.Z. (1975). "Congenital Rubella in the United States". In Krugman S Gershon A. Symposium on Infections Of the Fetus and Newborn Infant. New York: Alan R. Liss. pp. 1–. ISBN 0845100033.
  35. ↑ Danovaro-Holliday MC, LeBaron CW, Allensworth C, et al. (2000). "A large rubella outbreak with spread from the workplace to the community". JAMA. 284 (21): 2733–9. doi:10.1001/jama.284.21.2733. PMID 11105178.
  36. ↑ Reef S (2006). "Rubella mass campaigns". Curr. Top. Microbiol. Immunol. 304: 221–9. doi:10.1007/3-540-36583-4_12. PMID 16989272.
  37. ↑ http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60712-1/fulltext
  38. 1 2 Ackerknecht, Erwin Heinz (1982). A short history of medicine. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 129. ISBN 0-8018-2726-4.
  39. ↑ Wesselhoeft C (1949). "Rubella and congenital deformities". N. Engl. J. Med. 240 (7): 258–61. doi:10.1056/NEJM194902172400706. PMID 18109609.
  40. ↑ Best, J.M.; Cooray, S.; Banatvala, J.E. (2005). "45. Rubella". Topley and Wilson's Microbiology and Microbial Infections. 2 Virology. pp. 960–992. ISBN 0-340-88562-9.
  41. 1 2 3 Lee JY, Bowden DS (2000). "Rubella virus replication and links to teratogenicity". Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 13 (4): 571–87. doi:10.1128/CMR.13.4.571-587.2000. PMC 88950Freely accessible. PMID 11023958.
  42. 1 2 3 4 Atkinson, W; Hamborsky, J; McIntyre, L; Wolfe, S, eds. (2007). "12. Rubella" (PDF). Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (10th ed.). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
  43. 1 2 3 4 "Chapter 11 — Rubella" (PDF). Immunisation Handbook 2006. Ministry of Health, Wellington, NZ. April 2006. ISBN 0-478-29926-5. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
  44. ↑ Smith, J. L. Contributions to the study of Rötheln. Trans. Int. Med. Congr. Phil. 4,14. 1881
  45. ↑ Hess, Alfred Fabian (1914). "German measles (rubella): an experimental study". The Archives of Internal Medicine. Chicago. 13: 913–6. doi:10.1001/archinte.1914.00070120075007. as cited by Enersen, Ole Daniel. "Alfred Fabian Hess". WhoNamedIt. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
  46. ↑ Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America Leslie J. Reagan
  47. ↑ J.B. Hanshaw, J.A. Dudgeon, and W.C. Marshall. Viral diseases of the fetus and newborn. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1985
  48. ↑ "EPI Newsletter" (PDF). XX (4). Pan American Health Organization. August 1998. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
  49. ↑ http://www.eltiempo.com/vida-de-hoy/salud/colombia-libre-de-sarampion-y-rubeola_13396295-4
  50. ↑ http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/salud/colombia-fue-declarada-libre-de-sarampion-y-rubeola-articulo-470243
  51. ↑ "Rubella (German measles) eradicated from Americas". BBC. April 29, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  52. ↑ Merriam-webster:Rubeola Accessed 2009-09-20.
  53. ↑ T. E. C. Jr. (January 1972). "Letters to the editor". Pediatrics. 49 (1): 150–1.
  54. ↑ Webster's Online Dictionary: German measles Accessed 2009-09-20

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