Why You should be Vaccinated for Rubella?

Rubella virus causes rubella, also known as German measles and congenital rubella syndrome. Humans are the natural host. That means that the virus is only found in humans, therefore, you will not acquire it from any animal.

The virus cause disease in adults but its effects on the fetus are far worse. If the mother is not immune against it, and she acquires the virus during pregnancy, there is a high chance that your baby develops significant congenital malformations of the heart, brain and the eyes.

• ·         patent ductus arteriosus

• ·         cataracts

• ·         deafness

• ·         mental retardation

So how do you get the immunity?

You will have life long immunity if you are infected with the virus. If not, the only way to get the immunity is by vaccination.

Good News for Americans

In 2005 the centre of disease control announced that USA has eradicated the disease from their country. This is a result of extended immunization programs. There have been several cases reported after that but they are cases acquired from outside the country.

Are you infected with Rubella? How to Diagnose?  

pregnant? vaccinated?  

References:

Review of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - 10th Ed

Are you infected with Rubella? How to Diagnose?

The diagnosis of Rubella is done by several methods. They are,

• ·         Observing the virus’ ability to interfere with echovirus CPE

• ·         observing a fourfold or greater rise in antibody titer between acute-phase and convalescent-phase sera in the hemagglutination inhibition test

• ·          ELISA

• ·          observing the presence of IgM antibody in a single acute-phase serum sample

These words may confuse you, so let me explain how the immunity develops and how the diagnosis is done.

Rubella is a virus, so when the virus enters your body the body recognizes the virus and produce antibodies which fight against the virus. The kind of antibodies produced at the beginning are called IgM antibodies. When the time passes the body starts to develop the kind of antibodies which are called as IgG antibodies.

In vaccination what happens is that we introduce an inactive part of the virus to the body’s immune system, so it can produce the above antibodies without the actual virus infection.

We can check the blood for above two types of antibodies. If the blood contains IgM antibodies, that indicate recent infection with the virus. If it is IgG type, so it is past infection and indicate immunity, so there is nothing to worry about.

References:

Review of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - 10th Ed