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Photograph of an abdomen with a rash caused by rubella
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    • Services and providers for Rubella in the U.S.
  • National Institutes of Health

Also called: German measles, Three day measles

Rubella is an illness with flu-like symptoms followed by a rash. Common symptoms include

  • Low-grade fever
  • Headache
  • Runny nose
  • Red eyes
  • Muscle or joint pain

Rubella is usually mild. You may get it and not even know it. However, adults who get rubella often feel sicker than children do. The biggest danger of rubella is if a woman gets it during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. She may lose the baby, or the virus could cause problems to her unborn baby. Those problems could include cataracts, deafness or damage to the heart or brain.

A virus causes rubella. It can spread from one person to another through the air or through close contact with someone who has it. There is no treatment for rubella, but the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine can prevent it.

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