Is Rubella still around?

[Sakura]

17 reported cases in the US in 2008.

Is it that the disease is so mild or often symptomatic so it's majorly underdiagnosed?

Are doctors loathe to diagnose it in vaxed children, or they just classify it as a random viral rash?

What are the chances that a child can be exposed to it and then get lifelong immunity from it?

[Seaweed]

I'm not in the US but my youngest dd got rubella from a recently vaxed child who was shedding when she was about 9 months old. I never took her to the doctor to be diagnosed. It was mild as ( I'm guessing ) she was fully bf at the time & I have immunity having had it naturally & I am sure I was jabbed when I was a teen too.

[Nirvana]

My DD had rubella too when she was around 15 months old. The pedi made the diagnosis but that time I had no clue about rubella. She said it was german measles and I thought my DD had measles! :o

Now I know better thankfully. I did nothing special just made sure she BF, fluids, rest. It was a mild case too.

[Nirvana]

Oh I have not been vaxed for it and neither has DD been given the MMR.

[Spy]

Yeah, it's still around, just not reported.
Could be because doctors don't know what it looks like anymore... :rolleyes: wouldn't know it if they trip over it.

[stepmumand1]

Could be because doctors don't know what it looks like anymore... :rolleyes: wouldn't know it if they trip over it. After just being involved with a few Dr's that didn't want to diagnose mealses and being told that the only way to tell the german mealses and measles apart is the brown stain that measles leaves. I believe that above statement is 100% true and the fact that diagnosing a vaccine preventable disease involves more paperwork and phone calls. Rubella is definatley still around here in Australia most parents that suspect their children have it don't need it reported by a Dr a confirming it. The other children/adults that do contract rubella and have no idea probably go to the Dr's and get the wool pulled over their eyes and charged $60 for a diagnosis of 'just another viral rash'.

[Spy]

Makes you wish sometimes 'viral rash' were a notifiable disease to see just how many more of these gets notified as something 'specifically rashed' disappears. :LMAO:

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Perhaps thats why CMV (cytomegalovirus) appears to have "replaced" rubella virus as the leading cause of TORCH ongenital malformations in babies. Yes, there's a vaccine for that too, so what will be the next virus that causes TORCH syndrome?

TORCH - toxoplasmosis, Other viruses, Rubella, cytomegalovirus and Herpes) sometimes it has an S on the end, for syphillis.

Here is a page on Torch: http://www.medicineonline.com/articles/t/2/TORCH-Infections.html

[tbavrbab]

Also, some doctors believe when they see it that rubella is "fifth's disease." Or so it's called, I'm not sure it's ever been given a real name...

For my son, rubella started similar to the way fifth's disease supposedly starts, but he never got a lacy rash, his red rash (looked just like the rubella rash) lasted the right amount of time for rubella too. After it didn't turn lacy when it was supposed to, I took him back and the doctors decided it was rubella instead. ::shrug::

[3monkeys]

fifths disease is also known as slap cheek.

Apparently (I read this somewhere when I thought DD has slap check) there used to be 5 rashes that children got.

measles
rubella
chicken pox
something else and I cant remember what it is :) and the
fifth one or fifths disease or slap check.

I always thought rubella was really mild in children anyway and the reason its so "dangerous" is because of the risk to pregnant women