Rubella is a viral infection, also sometimes known as German measles, which usually produces only a mild illness. However, it can cause serious birth defects in a fetus if it affects a nonimmune woman during early pregnancy. Somebody with rubella is infectious for a week before symptoms appear until up to 4 days after the rash appeared.
The rubella virus can be spread by mother-to-baby transmission and in airborne droplets.
Symptoms typically appear 2 to 3 weeks after infection. The main symptoms are a rash that appears on the face, spreads to the body and limbs, then disappears after a few days; fever; and swollen lymph nodes around the head and neck
. Acetaminophen may help to reduce fever, and symptoms usually clear up by themselves within about a week.
A vaccine against rubella is available and is usually given combined with measles and mumps in the MMR vaccine