RUBELLA

RUBELLA
Rubella is also known as GERMAN MEASLES. It is called this because GERMAN PHYSICIANS first discovered this in the 18th century. This usually goes unnoticed and is usually mild. Both children and adults can get this disease. Although, children recover from this much faster than adults. The GERMAN MEASLES lasts from 1-3 days. If pregnant women get in contact with this disease it can be fatal for the fetus. As the child can be born with this. It could cause spontaneous abortions.
RUBELLA is an airborne disease. And has an incubation period of 2-4 weeks.

RUBELLA is sometimes confused with rebeolla. That is a totally different disease. However in some countries GERMAN MEASLES is known as RUBEOLLA.
The signs and symptoms of RUBELLA are somewhat similar to the flu. Along with a rash on the:
A. FACE
B. TRUNK (THE BODY)
C. LIMBS (LEGS AND ARMS)

And takes about 3 days to start to fade away. This is why they call it the three day measles. After the face clears up it starts to spread to other parts of the body. Other signs include a low grade fever and swollen glands with:

A. JOINT PAINS
B. HEADACHE
C. CONJUNCTIVITIS
The swollen glands persist up to a week. The fever however very rarely rises above l00.4. The rash has either a light red color or a pink color to it. The rash causes itching. As the rash starts to clear up you may notice the skin shedding in small flakes. This occurs wherever the rash was.
Rubella can affect anyone of any age. It is rare in infants and people over 40. The older a person gets the more severe the symptoms can be. Although, the incubation period takes 2- to 3 weeks. The person is more contagious 1 week before and 1 week after. Rubella in an infant can cause:
A CARDIAC ARREST
B. CEREBRAL PALSY
C. SIGHT DEFECTS (CATARACTS)
D. HEARING LOSS
It can also cause:
A. LOW BIRTH WEIGHT
B. PREMATURE BIRTHS
C. ANEMIA
D. HEPATITIS
If a pregnant woman contacts the disease while she is carrying a child. This may lead to:
A. MISCARRIAGE
B. STILLBORN BABIES
If the baby survives this can lead to severe heart disorders.
The Rubella virus can persist for over a year.
The Rubella infection can be prevented by using a live vaccine virus in adults. The Rubella virus was reduced in children by immunization.
The vaccine is now given by a shot called MMR (MEASLES MUMPS & RUBELLA). This vaccine comes in two doses. One when the baby is 18 months old and the other when the baby is 36 months old. Pregnant are tested for this disease early in their pregnancy. Women who are susceptible to Rubella virus are not vaccinated until the baby is born as the vaccine is a live virus.
The immunization program for Rubella has been quite successful. CUBA has not had an outbreak of the disease since the 1990’s. While, the CDC (CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL) hasn’t had an outbreak since 2004.
Although, there is not a specific treatment for this. There is a lotion and liquid that will help with the itching:
A. CALAMINE LOTION
B. BENEDRYL TABLET AND LIQUID

Newborns that are infected with this can have:

A. CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE
B. CATARACTS (WHICH CAN BE CORRECTED BY SURGERY)
C. MASCULAR DEGENERATION
Rubella occurs world wide. This disease has no nationality. It usually tends to come more in the spring months. The CDC came out with the vaccine in 1969. Before the vaccine came out there were outbreaks occurring every 6-9 years in the UNITED STATES and every 3-5 years in EUROPE. Affecting children between 5-9 years of age.

In the UNITED KINGDOM there’s a large population of men whom are not vaccinated for Rubella. There have been a lot of outbreaks during 1993 and 1996. This was also passed onto pregnant women, many of them were from different countries. They are still having with Rubella. This is because they do not have the vaccine in all of the countries.
The first clinical description of the disease was confirmed in 1752. It was confirmed by FRIEDRICH HOFFMAN. And this was confirmed by two other doctors as well:
A. DE BERGEN
B. ORLOW
Both in 1758.
In 1814 GEORGE DE MATON said that this disease different than the regular measles and scarlet fever. All of the physicians were of GERMAN DESCENT. This disease is also called (ROTELIN) which is the name for GERMAN MEASLES in German. An ENGLISH ARTILLERY SURGEON had described this in INDIA. He had given it the name of RUBELLA which is the LATIN meaning little red in 1866.
RUBELLA was finally recognized and its own disease in 1881 by the INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MEDICINE. In 1914 it was theorized by ALFRED FABION HESS it was later confirmed by HIIRO & TOSAKA as its own disease in 1938.
In 1940 AUSTRALIA had a wide spread epidemic. NORMAN MC ALLISTER GREGG had found 78 cases of congenital cataracts in infants. 68 of them were from pregnant women who had contacted this disease while pregnant. CONGENITAL RUBELLA SYNDROME is also known as (CRS). If a woman is affected early in her pregnancy the more the damage there is to the fetus.
The epidemic that hit the UNITED STATES was during the years of 1964-1965. There was an estimate of 12.5 million cases reported. The epidemic in the UNITED KINGDOM had reported:
A. 1,000 MISCARRIAGES
B. 20,000 CONGENITAL RUBELLA SYNDROME
C. 2,100 DIED IN THE NEONATALUNIT
D. 12,000 WERE BORN DEAF
E. 3,580 WERE BLIND
F. 1,800 WERE BORN RETARDED

In NEW YORK alone CRS had affected 1% of all births.
In 1969 a vaccine was released. In the 1970’s a triple vaccine was introduced. This vaccine was MEASLES, MUMPS, & RUBELLA also known as (MMR).