Less identifiable than mumps, rubella is a disease little known to the general public.
In "Without appointment" Tuesday on Europe 1, doctor Jimmy Mohamed explained the characteristics of this one and its consequences for the fetus.
He also recalled the possibility of being vaccinated against this infection.
Disease with unknown symptoms, rubella is often discovered when getting vaccinated for children or during pregnancy. In "Without appointment" on Europe 1, the doctor and columnist of the show Jimmy Mohamed enumerated the symptoms associated with this viral infection and the risks which ensue from it.
"Rubella is a viral infection that belongs to the Togavirus family. It goes unnoticed in 50% of cases. You then have no symptoms and everything is fine. Conversely, you can have symptoms with a temperature. often moderate, below 39 ° C, headache, runny nose, conjunctivitis and glands behind the ears, much like with mumps, but also in the neck, followed by a rash on the tip It will first affect the face and gradually spread over the entire trunk, then disappear after a few days.
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Like any viral infection, rubella is contagious and is caught through droplets of saliva, sputum, sputum and sneezing.
People get sick after a fairly long incubation period, two to three weeks.
As with the coronavirus, you are contagious before you have symptoms, up to a week before.
Once the symptoms appear, we remain contagious for one to two weeks.
It is therefore a rather contagious disease.
No antibiotics required
Rubella can be treated well.
It evolves on its own like a classic nasopharyngitis.
As a general rule, we give paracetamol for comfort, we wait for it to pass, we wash our nose when it is taken and we monitor.
There is no need for antibiotic treatment and there are few or no complications.
They sometimes occur in women in the form of arthralgia, joint pain.
But in general, we heal without problem.
Major risks for the fetus
The main problem is congenital rubella.
This is the transmission of rubella from the mother to the baby, the fetus, through the placenta.
It's dramatic if it happens in the first trimester.
If you pass rubella there is a 70 to 100% risk of secondary malformations.
This risk increases until the sixth month.
From then on, it decreases.
But it can cause fetal death, with miscarriages, as well as congenital rubella.
The newborn child sometimes arrives prematurely with stunted growth.
He can have eye damage, brain damage, developmental disorder, cardiac developmental disorders.
So many pathologies that we would like to avoid, especially since there is a treatment, vaccination.
Vaccination possible for adults
Vaccination against rubella has been compulsory for children since 2018. It corresponds to two injections, first at one year and then at 16 or 18 months.
Adults can also be vaccinated in two injections.
The vaccine is very well tolerated and reimbursed at 65% by Social Security.
Finally, we often combine measles, mumps and rubella in the same vaccine, so it's a three in one. "