What is Rubella Virus?

As the industrialization process continues to accelerate, environmental pollution is becoming increasingly serious. Chemical pollution, radioactive pollution, etc. are not only affecting our lives, but also accelerating the mutation of pathogenic microorganisms. Pathogenic microorganisms can mutate in many ways, and in addition to morphological changes, they can also change in drug resistance. Therefore, if you are infected with the virus, it will be relatively more serious than before.

Under certain conditions, the higher the temperature, the faster the virus reproduces. Because of this, spring and summer are the peak seasons for viral infections in daily life. Rubella virus is a common virus that causes infection in children in spring. It can cause more serious clinical symptoms in children. Let’s take a brief look at it below.

Rubella is a common, acute infectious disease caused by a virus that mainly occurs in spring and can affect both children and adults.

Rubella virus is an RNA virus that is limited to humans. It is mostly irregular spherical in shape. The antigenic structure of rubella virus is quite stable, and only one serotype is known.

Depending on the mode of infection, it can be divided into naturally infectious rubella and congenital rubella, and their manifestations are different.

1. Naturally infected rubella: the average incubation period is 18 days (14 to 21 days).

(1) Prodromal phase: It is relatively short, about 1 to 2 days, and the symptoms are also mild. Mild upper respiratory tract inflammation such as low or moderate fever, headache, loss of appetite, fatigue, weakness, cough, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, conjunctival congestion, etc. Occasionally accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, nose bleeding, swollen gums, etc. Generally speaking, the prodromal symptoms in infants and young children are often mild or absent. The symptoms are more pronounced in older children and adults and may last for 5 to 6 days.

(2) Rash stage: The rash usually appears 1 to 2 days after the fever. The rash first appears on the face and neck, and quickly spreads downward, covering the trunk and limbs within 1 day, but there is usually no rash on the palms and soles of the feet. The rash initially appears as fine, light red macules, maculopapules or papules, with a diameter of 2 to 3 mm. The rash on the face and distal limbs is sparse, and some are fused, similar to measles. The rash is dense and fused into patches on the trunk, especially the back, which is similar to scarlet fever.

2. Congenital rubella: It means that a pregnant woman suffers from rubella in the early stages of pregnancy, and then the rubella virus infects the fetus through the placenta. After the fetus is infected, severe cases may lead to stillbirth, miscarriage, or premature birth. Mild cases may cause fetal developmental retardation, with birth weight, height, head circumference, chest circumference, etc. all lower than those of normal newborns. This difference often cannot be corrected until the age of 1 year.

(1) Children with severe congenital infection may develop thrombocytopenic purpura, with purple-red spots of varying sizes at birth, often accompanied by other temporary lesions, as well as symptoms such as liver enlargement, hepatitis, hemolytic anemia, and cerebrospinal fluid cell pleocytosis. It is also accompanied by low weight, congenital heart disease, cataracts, deafness and microcephaly.

(2) There may also be heart malformations and cardiovascular malformations. The most common is patent ductus arteriosus. Most infants do not have severe cardiovascular symptoms at birth; but some develop heart failure within the first month after birth.

(3) Unilateral or bilateral deafness. The lesion is located in the cochlea of ​​Corti in the inner ear. But there are also people with lesions in the middle ear.

There may also be congenital piriform cataracts, glaucoma, and effects on the nerve center, etc.

It can be seen that the harm of rubella virus is quite serious, especially for pregnant women. Congenital rubella has a serious impact on the future life of the fetus.

The above is the impact of rubella virus infection on us. From the above we can see that, in fact, the impact of rubella virus on us is congenital and natural, and congenital infection has a very serious impact on the fetus, so pregnant women should pay special attention to increasing their own resistance and avoid contact with patients infected with rubella virus to avoid infection themselves.