complications
Last reviewed 01/2018
Complications of rubella are rare and include:
- thrombocytopaenia
- occurs in about 1 in 3000 individuals with rubella (1)
- commonly seen in children
- encephalitis and polyneuritis
- encephalitis – 1 in 6000 cases
- frequent in adults (2)
- arthritis or arthralgia in adolescents
- seen in upto 70% of adult women with rubella
- usually fingers, wrists, and knees are affected (2)
- chronic arthritis is rare (1)
- in pregnant women
- during first trimester – miscarriages, fetal deaths/stillborn (3)
- congenital rubella syndrome – may present with one or more of the following
- cataracts and other eye defects
- deafness
- cardiac abnormalities
- microcephaly
- intra-uterine growth restriction
- lesions of brain, liver, lungs and bone marrow (1)
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