Home > Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine > Rubella

Definition

Rubella is a highly contagious viral disease, spread through contact with discharges from the nose and throat of an infected person. A person infected with the rubella virus is contagious for about seven days before any symptoms appear and continues to spread the disease for about four days after the appearance of symptoms. Rubella has an incubation period of 12–23 days.

Description

Rubella is also called German measles or the three-day measles. This disease was once a common childhood illness, but its occurrence has been drastically reduced since vaccine against rubella became available in 1969. In the three decades following the introduction of the vaccine, reported rubella cases dropped 99.6%. Only 229 cases of rubella were reported in the United States in 1996. A recent study indicates, however, that the age group pattern of rubella is shifting. As of 2002, the number of cases reported in people...