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Rubella in pregnancy and fetal syndrome
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
Rubella during pregnancy can cause spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, the birth of a child with multiple developmental defects, manifestations of an active infectious process. Congenital rubella is caused by the rubella virus and has the following symptoms:
- heart defects:
- nonclosure of the arterial duct;
- pulmonary stenosis;
- interventricular and interatrial septal defects;
- eye damage;
- pearly nuclear cataract;
- microphthalmia;
- congenital glaucoma;
- retinopathy;
- CNS lesions:
- microcephaly;
- mental retardation;
- mental retardation;
- paraplegia;
- autism;
- deafness.
Children are often born with low birth weight, hemorrhagic blue, hepatosplenomegaly, hemolytic anemia, meningitis, bone damage, but all these lesions are reversible. In the second decade of life, a slow infection of the central nervous system may develop - progressive rubella panencephalitis, manifested by decreased intelligence, myoclonus, ataxia, epileptic syndrome and leading to death. Congenital rubella increases the risk of developing type 1 diabetes. With fetal rubella syndrome, the mortality rate is about 10%.
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