Rubella (German measles) is an infectious viral infection which infects through droplets; i.e. through inhaling microscopical droplets from the expiration or sneezing of a sick person - just as is the case with a cold or flu. The incubation period - which is the time from infection until the symptoms appear - is usually 14 - 21 days.
A person is infectious from about 7 days before the outbreak until 5 days after the symptoms have disappeared. The symptoms start with a mild cold, light fever, and small brownish red spots spreading over the entire body - the face, however is more mildly affected. The spots fade in a few days. The lymph nodes in the back of the head will swell and be tender. The joints can also be slightly affected and become sore. Almost 50% of people who are infected will not have any significant symptoms. The disease normally provides life-long immunity.
Rubella rarely causes complications. However, the disease can result in damage of the foetus during the first 4 months of pregnancy. Approximately 25% of women who are infected with rubella during pregnancy will give birth to children with handicaps such as blindness, deafness, cardiac failure, or mental retardation called the congenital rubella syndrome. Children who are born with rubella are infectious.
British children are normally offered a vaccine against rubella (included in the MMR vaccine which also contains vaccination against mumps and measles) when they are 13 months old - followed up with a second vaccination when they reach the pre-school age.
