Persistence of Virus in Infants With Congenital Rubella and in Normal Infants With a History of Maternal Rubella

Abstract

Virological studies were carried out on 600 specimens collected from 85 infants born during an epidemic of congenital rubella syndrome. Thirty-six of these infants (42%) yielded rubella virus from at least one specimen. Of 31 babies with expanded rubella syndrome with thrombocytopenia, 19 (61%) excreted virus, while 11 of 35 infants (31%) with congenital rubella syndrome without thrombocytopenia excreted virus. Virus was also recovered from four of five infants who were apparently normal at birth but who were born to mothers with a definite clinical history of rubella in the first trimester of pregnancy. In the first month of life, virus could be recovered readily from the throat and cerebrospinal fluid, and in decreasing order of frequency from the urine, feces, peripheral blood, and bone marrow. There was also a high rate of recovery of virus from cerebrospinal fluid specimens later in life.