Taking care of your unborn baby during winter is important. Shalvi Mangaokar speaks to Dr. Suman Bijlani and tells you more about rubella which is most prominent during the winter months
Winter is here! Sweaters, shawls, cardigans are the flavour of the season. You are armed with moisturising creams and lotions and foot care kits. But apart from all of this, how many of us, especially expectant mothers, realise the need to guard themselves against rubella? Not many. It probably is a little lesser known fact that rubella can affect the child in your womb.
Dr. Suman Bijlani, Gynaecologist and Director at Gyenguide clinic tells you what you need to know about rubella.
WHAT IS RUBELLA?: Rubella, which is most prevalent in late winter and early spring, is a seemingly benign infection which causes a mild self-limiting illness in adults and children, comprising of a cold, mild fever, pink skin rash over the face, trunk and limbs, as well as swollen lymph nodes or joint pains. In about one third of infected individuals, it causes no symptoms at all!
Yet, many women who get infected with the rubella virus during pregnancy or just before getting pregnant stand the risk of infecting their unborn baby. If the mother passes on this infection in the first half of pregnancy, the baby may be born with complications. Rubella often goes unnoticed as the symptoms pass off as that of the common cold or viral fever. SYMPTOMS: Most of the time, the symptoms are mild and tend to go unnoticed. They are similar to that of common cold (running nose, sneezing and fever) with skin rash which disappears without scarring in about 3 days. There may be associated swollen lymph glands in the neck. Some people may experience joint pains too.
WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND?: If you develop rubella like symptoms in pregnancy and you have not been vaccinated previously, inform your doctor and get yourself tested. You will come to no harm, but your baby
might suffer grave consequences. RISKS: Children and adults won’t suffer from any kind of harmful consequences, but unborn babies who get infected through its pregnant mother may develop cataract, deafness, heart defects and calcifications in the brain. Even mental retardation can occur in the foetus. Miscarriages, still birth, prematurity and low birth weight babies may result too. At birth, the baby may also have an enlarged liver and spleen and low haemoglobin and platelet count.
PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES: The precautionary measures for rubella are the same as that for a cold. Cover your mouth while sneezing, avoid crowded places and people who have cold and a skin rash. Getting a rubella vaccine is your best option.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?: If you have already been infected some time in life, you have probably become immune to the disease and cannot get infected again. Those who have taken the MMR vaccine in childhood are likely to be immune. Unmarried girls and women planning a pregnancy should get themselves vaccinated. Do not plan pregnancy for a month after the vaccine shot.
Most western countries undertake mass vaccination programs for their school going girls. In India, MMR vaccination at 15 month of age is on the national immunisation schedule.
ExPERT SPEAK
"Many women who get infected with the rubella virus during pregnancy or just before getting pregnant stand the risk of infecting their unborn baby. If the mother passes on this infection in the first half of pregnancy, the baby may be born with complications."
— Dr. Suman Bijlani