Did you know that I am one damn healthy pregnant woman? The only thing remotely of concern is that I no longer have an immunity to German measles, aka rubella. If I were to contract rubella, the little one in utero could be at risk for developing congenital rubella syndrome, which appears to result in some very nasty and unfortunate consequences, which I choose not to list here.
Strangely, I have apparently beaten fate once already with regards to rubella. My mother had German measles in her first trimester with me. She was advised to terminate the pregnancy, and there was a 20% chance that she would spontaneously miscarry, err, me. There was a lot of joy and surprise in the delivery room when I was born, with no visible abnormalities or deformities (they’re all in my brain *grin*). My mother reports that the team of doctors on hand were positively bored when they first saw my perfect little self. My father cried as he counted toes and fingers.
But I digress.
Of course, my initial reaction to receiving the news of my newly discovered lack of immunity to a disease that had the potential to kill my unborn child and COULD have killed me in utero was to freak out. Luckily, and as is my modus operandi, I followed the freaking out with doing some research. I figured I’d share the fruits of my paranoia, err, research with YOU, my reading public!
Interestingly enough, the rubella vaccine was introduced in 1969, just before my birth. The disease itself isn’t a very big deal to those not pregnant. But the vaccine was actually developed to protect unborn children. According to Wikipedia, “during the epidemic in the US between 1962-1965, Rubella virus infections during pregnancy were estimated to have caused 30,000 still births and 20,000 children to be born impaired or disabled as a result of CRS.” There are other scary statistics, but you can go look those up yourself. Suffice to say, the epidemic did some damage to unborn children in those years before the immunization program began.
The comprehensive MMR vaccine (measles/mumps/rubella, for those of you who haven’t gone through the fun of childhood immunizations) that children* receive at 12months was developed in the 70s. Incidences of rubella dropped so significantly that today it is rarely seen in the US. Most cases worldwide occur in developing countries where the immunization is hard to get. A 2004 study reported that 91% of the US population is immune to rubella. Thus, it’s a rather rare disease to procure these days.
In my humble opinion, it would be prudent to check on your immunity if you plan to have children or be in the presence of pregnant women. It’s rare, sure. The MMR program works. NPR had an interesting article up today, actually, about immunizations, specifically about the pertussis immunization. Take a look!
I’m not going to rant about whether or not you choose to immunize your kids. That’s a personal choice. I happen to fall on the side of immunizing the hell out of my kids. And I do it not only for them, but also for my community. For those who would be most affected, were one of these rarely seen, almost eradicated epidemics to have its way with an underprepared population.
So yeah, I’m not going to be exposed to rubella. The chances are ridiculously tiny.
Still, if you have a rash and sneeze in my general direction, you can fully expect me to run screaming in the opposite direction. I can’t help it. It’s something abnormal in my brain.
*read this as “children whose parents support immunization programs in the US,” and know that I bear no ill will toward any of my dear readers who have a different ideology than mine regarding immunization.