22 Apr 2025 - Service Adjustment of FPAHK Yuen Long Birth Control Clinic (G/F) and Yuen Long FPAHK Anita Mui Health Centre (1/F) from 12 May 2025 (Monday)
31 Dec 2024 - Opening Hours of FPA Birth Control Clinics from January to December, 2025
14 Nov 2024 - The Association is NOT the service provider of FREE HPV Vaccination Catch-up Programme launched by The Department of Health for eligible female Hong Kong residents born between 2004 and 2008.
What is Rubella?
Rubella is a highly contagious viral infection. Because rubella can present with little or no symptoms, it can easily go undetected. If a woman contracts rubella during the first trimester of her pregnancy, the virus may be transmitted to the baby and result in serious birth defects or even stillbirth.
How is Rubella transmitted?
Rubella is transmitted through airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes or through direct contact with an infected person. The infected people are contagious from 7 days before to 7 days after the rash appears. Infections usually occur during late winter and early spring.
Who can get Rubella?
Any person, regardless of age and sex, can get rubella. Although 95% of the people who have been infected with rubella develop immunity against the disease, reinfection may still occur in a few.
Incubation Period
From contracting the virus to onset of skin rash, the incubation period ranges from 12 to 23 days with an average of 17 days.
Signs and Symptoms
- Up to 50% of infected people can be asymptomatic. However, they can still spread the disease.
- General Malaise: From 1 to 7 days before onset of rash, the infected person will experience symptoms such as headache, fever, coughing, throat and eyes irritation, etc.
- Skin Rash: Tiny pink-red skin rash first appears on the face or behind the ears, and then spreads over the body within 24 hours. The rash lasts from 1 to 5 days.
- Swollen Lymph Glands: Usually appearing at the back of the ears or neck that last 5 to 8 days.
- Joint Pain: This complication tends to affect young women and can persist up to 10 days.
- Complications: Rarely, acute encephalitis may result.
How would Rubella affect your offsprings?
Rubella can be a serious disease for pregnant women. If a woman is infected during the first trimester of her pregnancy, there is a 90% chance of passing the virus on to her fetus, causing severe birth defects such as deafness, blindness, heart defects, mental retardation or even stillbirth.
Any woman in early pregnancy who suspects rubella infection should undergo a blood test. If found to be infected, she should consult her doctor to decide whether or not to continue the pregnancy.
Pre-pregnancy Preparation
Women who have not had rubella and are not sure whether they are immune to the disease can undergo a pre-pregnancy blood test and check-up to determine their immune status when they are planning to have children. Women who do not have immunity against rubella should be vaccinated to safeguard the health of their babies.
According to the recommendation of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in 2001, pregnancy must be avoided within 1 month after rubella vaccination. Therefore couples should use effective contraception during this period.
Rubella vaccine
Rubella vaccines are commonly in combinations with other vaccines such as with vaccines against measles and mumps (MMR), or measles, mumps and varicella (MMRV).
Adverse reactions following vaccination are generally mild. They may include pain and redness at the injection site, low-grade fever, rash, swelling of the glands in the cheeks or neck or temporary pain and stiffness in joint. Rarely there might be seizures (often associated with fever) or temporary low platelet count that can cause unusual bleeding or bruising.