Rubella is a viral disease that mainly affects children. The virus is transmitted by airborne droplets from person to person and is highly contagious. But the disease itself causes not very serious symptoms, is easily tolerated and, with the current level of development of medicine, can be cured quickly. The danger of rubella is that it has a teratogenic effect. That is, if a woman falls ill during pregnancy, it causes various pathologies of intrauterine development and deformity of the fetus. The rubella vaccine can help prevent this problem. For prevention, girls aged 13-15 are vaccinated, which contributes to the development of resistance to infection over the next 10 years.
What is rubella
This is an infectious disease that is transmitted by airborne droplets through close contact from person to person. Its feature is the longest incubation period. The risk of infection increases in crowded groups, for example, in children'sgardens, barracks, rest houses. Rubella occurs with high fever, general intoxication, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat and cough. The main symptom of the disease is a characteristic rash all over the body, which disappears after a few days without a trace. This disease is mild and rarely causes complications.
So many people don't know what rubella is. Although this disease is quite dangerous for pregnant women. The virus easily crosses the placental barrier and causes serious harm to the baby. The infection causes the development of congenital deformities and can lead to the death of the child. More than 60% of babies with rubella in utero are born with deafness, cataracts, heart defects or brain damage.
Why getting the rubella vaccine is important
This disease is rapidly transmitted through contact with an infected person. The danger is that the patient becomes contagious 2 weeks before the appearance of obvious signs of the disease and 1-2 weeks after recovery. Rubella is easily tolerated by both adults and children and resolves within a week without special treatment. Therefore, 20 years ago it was not considered necessary to vaccinate everyone. Vaccinations were mainly given to children, making outbreaks very rare these days.
But recent studies have shown that if a woman does not have immunity to this virus, she can easily become infected during pregnancy. And this can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, or various intrauterine malformations.development. This condition is called SLE - congenital rubella syndrome. Therefore, for more than a decade, the rubella vaccine has been introduced in many countries as mandatory. This is the only way to prevent pregnancy complications due to infection.
rubella vaccination policy
To completely eradicate rubella as an infectious disease, it is necessary to cover almost everyone with vaccinations. For this, vaccination is carried out when the child is one year old, then repeated at 6 years. It is not advisable for infants to be vaccinated, since they receive immunity from the mother, and the vaccine strain will be neutralized by antibodies. For the same reason, it is recommended to revaccinate at 6-7 years of age. If antibodies to rubella are present in the blood, vaccination is not necessary. If for some reason the vaccination was not done at the right time, it can be done at any age after a year. At the same time, revaccination is needed no earlier than after 6 years.
This approach contributes to the formation of strong immunity in children, but it takes at least 20 years to completely eradicate rubella in the country. Therefore, in order to prevent SLE, adolescent girls are vaccinated at the age of 13-15, as well as women of childbearing age. Many countries strictly ensure that women from 18 to 35 years of age who have not had rubella and have not previously received a vaccination are required to be vaccinated. In France, they even refuse to register a marriage without a vaccination mark.
In addition, vaccination is carried out for other groups of the population according to epidemiologicalindications, for example, in groups with high crowding. It is also recommended that close relatives of a woman planning a pregnancy be vaccinated so as not to expose her to the risk of infection.
Vaccination reaction
Side effects from the rubella vaccine are rare and usually well tolerated. Even special therapy is not required, since all negative phenomena disappear on their own in a few days. The reaction to vaccination can be local and general. Local side effects include soreness and induration at the injection site. Sometimes there may be redness and slight swelling.
Even less common side effects:
- skin rash;
- slight increase in temperature;
- enlarged cervical lymph nodes;
- weakness, headache;
- respiratory events;
- nausea, abdominal pain;
- decrease in the number of platelets in the blood;
- short-term arthralgia, mainly knee or wrist joints;
- sometimes arthritis or polyneuritis in adolescence;
- very rarely, aseptic meningitis or encephalitis can develop.
Usually such phenomena appear from 5 to 15 days after vaccination. Most often, complications occur in adolescents and adults. People with hypersensitivity and allergies may have an immediate reaction to the vaccine in the form of urticaria, anaphylactic shock, or angioedema. When vaccinating such patients, it is necessary to ensure medical supervision, althoughhalf an hour.
In addition, there are cases when an already infected child is vaccinated. In this case, the appearance of symptoms of the disease is taken for post-vaccination complications. Although this is also not excluded - approximately 10% of patients after vaccination carry rubella in a very mild form.
Vaccination contraindications
Unfortunately, it is impossible to cover 100% of the population with rubella vaccinations. Like any other drug, rubella vaccines have their contraindications. Temporary restrictions forcing the vaccination to be postponed for some time include exacerbation of chronic diseases and acute diseases. Within three months, no vaccinations are given after the introduction of blood products or immunoglobulins. You can not vaccinate for about a year after radiation therapy and taking immunosuppressants. There is also no vaccination during pregnancy. It is advisable to prevent conception 3 months after vaccination.
Vaccination against rubella is completely contraindicated in such cases:
- with immunodeficiency;
- oncological diseases;
- blood diseases;
- severe allergic reaction to a previous shot;
- with intolerance to "Kanamycin", "Neomycin" and "Monomycin";
- for an allergy to egg protein.
How to prevent complications
Despite the fact that the rubella vaccine rarely causes negative effects, it is very important for parents to follow the basic rules of vaccination. Often the complications are not due tolow-quality drug, but the fault of the patient. Therefore, be sure to consult a doctor before getting vaccinated. The specialist must examine the child, determine if there are any contraindications. In addition, a few days before and after vaccination, you need to limit contact with people to prevent infection.
It is also important to know which rubella vaccine is given to a child. The name of the drug can be obtained from the nurse giving the injection. The possibility of developing complications depends on this. For example, negative reactions most often occur after the Priorix vaccine. Parents need to find out everything about this drug, about the complications it can cause.
How to vaccinate properly
Any rubella vaccine comes in two bottles: one contains the drug itself in dried form, the other contains a special solvent. Connect them with a sterile syringe, mix well, avoiding foaming. The vaccine must be completely dissolved until a clear liquid is obtained. This usually takes 3 minutes. Before use, you need to check the vaccine for expiration date and violation of the integrity of the package. Such drugs require special storage conditions, in violation of which they cannot be used.
After dilution, the vaccine must be used immediately, it is not subject to storage. Usually a single dose of the drug is 0.5 ml. A three-component vaccine is administered subcutaneously, a monopreparation can also be administered intramuscularly. Usually the injection is made in the shoulder or under the shoulder blade. Only in rare cases, for example, smallchildren can be vaccinated in the thigh. Rubella vaccine is not administered to the gluteal muscle, as local side effects often develop there.
The live rubella vaccine goes well with some other drugs: measles, mumps, whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus. True, they cannot be mixed in one syringe and must be injected into different places. And if it is necessary to vaccinate with other live vaccines, the interval between them should be at least a month.
What are the rubella vaccines
Vaccinations against this disease have been made for more than 40 years, but only after 2002 they became mandatory. All vaccines contain a live attenuated, that is, weakened strain of the virus. Just one injection provides immunity in 95% of people, the same as after natural infection.
Rubella vaccines can now be either monovalent, aimed at protecting against a single virus, or multicomponent. Basically, they are combined with vaccines against measles, mumps or chicken pox. In Russia, the most commonly used rubella vaccine is domestic or imported preparations containing a weakened virus. These are the Belgian "Priorix" and "Ervevaks", as well as the French "Rudivaks". In addition, an Indian or Croatian vaccine is also used. The American drug MMR, which is a three-component, is rarely used.
Russian vaccines
Domestic preparations are often used for routine vaccination of children and adults. They are inexpensive, but effective andsecurity is in no way inferior to imported analogues. These vaccines contain a live strain of the rubella virus, weakened and dried. These single drugs rarely cause complications and are easily tolerated even by young children. Their only drawback is that during routine immunization, many injections are required. But such vaccines are well suited for vaccinating girls and adults.
Priorix vaccine
The most commonly used for immunization of children at the age of one year and at 6 years of age is a three-component vaccination: rubella, mumps and measles. These diseases are a bit similar, so it became possible to combine strains of the virus in one preparation. This is convenient as it only takes one injection. For such a vaccination, Priorix is used - a Belgian-made vaccine. It contains attenuated live strains of the measles, mumps and rubella viruses.
This vaccine is used to protect a person from these three infections. But Priorix is a vaccine that can also be used if the child has already had one of these diseases. At the same time, immunity is developed to a new virus for the body, and already known ones will be inactivated. Clinical trials have shown that 98% of those vaccinated receive antibodies to the measles virus, and more than 99% to rubella. Moreover, immunity is preserved in all cases after a year, starting to decline only after 4-5 years.
Ervevax vaccine
More affordable and commonly used is the one-component rubella-only vaccine. This is the Belgian vaccine "Ervevax". Reviews aboutIt is noted that the developed immunity against the virus persists for at least 15 years. This drug rarely causes side effects, so it is often used to vaccinate young children. But Ervevax vaccines are effective for adolescents and for adult women of reproductive age to prevent complications during pregnancy.
This vaccine can be given on the same day as polio, measles, mumps, and multicomponent DTP. But injections are made in different places of the body.
Rudivax Vaccine
Another imported drug is used to prevent rubella. This is Rudivax, a French-made vaccine. It contains attenuated rubella vaccine virus. Immunity after vaccination is developed in all vaccinated, without exception, within 2 weeks and can last up to 20 years. Therefore, this vaccine is considered the most effective. In addition, it rarely causes side effects.
Whether or not to vaccinate children against rubella is now up to the parents themselves. Since the disease is not dangerous, it's okay if the child gets sick. The only danger is that complications may arise or it may infect a pregnant woman. And rubella in this state causes severe intrauterine pathologies. Therefore, it is recommended that all women who have not been vaccinated against rubella and have not been ill with it should be vaccinated before the expected pregnancy.
