An Outbreak of Congenital Rubella in Chicago
- Catherine Lamprecht, MD;
- Victoria Schauf, MD;
- Dora Warren, MS;
- Kenrad Nelson, MD;
- Robert Northrop, DVM, PhD;
- Mary Christiansen, PhD
- From the Department of Pediatrics (Drs Lamprecht and Schauf), the School of Public Health (Ms Warren and Dr Northrop), and the Departments of Medicine and Preventive Medicine (Dr Nelson), University of Illinois at the Medical Center, and the Virology Laboratory, Children's Memorial Hospital (Dr Christiansen), Chicago. Dr Lamprecht is now with the Department of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago.
Abstract
After an outbreak of rubella in Chicago in 1978, an intensive survey of local health care personnel and hospital records identified 31 infants with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). Rubella virus was isolated from 11 infants; rubella-IgM antibodies were demonstrated in seven infants; ten babies had persistent high rubella hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) titers. The incidence of CRS in Chicago between July 1978 and June 1979 was 48.9 per 100,000 live births. Mothers of babies with CRS frequently remembered a rash-illness during pregnancy (56%), were unmarried (74%), and were primigravidas (64%). No mother had received rubella vaccine. Review of prenatal rubella HI testing and follow-up immunization in one hospital showed that only eight (10.8%) of 74 seronegative women received rubella vaccine after delivery. This outbreak of CRS, a preventable disease, indicates that physicians need to place increased emphasis on detection and vaccination of susceptible adult women.
(JAMA 1982;247:1129-1133)
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to the Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai Hospital, 2755 W 15th St, Chicago, IL 60608 (Dr Lamprecht).
