What is Rubella? Rubella is a common disease often referred to as German measles. It is caused by the Rubella virus, though it is hardly a debilitating disease and no cases of death caused by Rubella have been documented recently. However, it can be very uncomfortable, and might prove harmful to expecting or pregnant women in their first stages of pregnancy. The disease often passes unnoticed and often times, infected individuals suffer from no symptoms of the Rubella Virus. However, pregnant mothers may pass the disease on to their unborn children, causing congenital rubella syndrome which causes life-long, debilitating symptoms for the child, and, in around 20% of cases, spontaneous abortion of the baby.
The rubella virus is rather common and passes without the notice of most infected individuals. However, in the few cases where it proves to be more detrimental, treatment is often sought. But, there is no treatment currently that can kill the Rubella virus. Because rubella comes from a virus, antibiotics are useless against it. The only thing that infected individuals can do is seek treatment for the relief of symptoms of the disease while the body fights the infection. Thus, infected mothers can do very little to help their unborn children after being infected with the Rubella virus.
The only relief that can be offered for waiting out the passing of Rubella is plenty of fluids, rest, and over the counter pain relievers to control pain and fever. If an expecting mother becomes infected, this can result in deafness, cataracts, heart defects, mental retardation, and spleen and liver damage to the fetus. These symptoms must be treated separately.
Because Rubella is a mild disease, research on its treatment is limited, the symptoms often pass without the infected individual even knowing they were infected.