Intrauterine rubella virus infection despite expected maternal immunity

Congenital rubella syndrome despite maternal antibodies.

A congenital rubella syndrome (Box 1) is rare in Canada, it does still occur. Many women immigrate to Canada from countries without a rubella vaccination program and may not have adequate immunity. In 2002, only 124 (58%) of 214 countries or territories around the world had implemented a rubella vaccination program. An Australian study found that women born in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South...

Congenital rubella after previous maternal immunity.

Two mothers who had asymptomatic rubella infection in pregnancy gave birth to severely affected infants. In both, the presence of preexisting antibody was well documented, although it could not be established whether it was the result of vaccine or natural infection.

Impaired cellular immunity to rubella virus in congenital rubella.

Specific cell-mediated immunity (CMI) responses to rubella virus were studied in 12 children with documented congenital rubella syndrome employing a (51)Cr lymphocytotoxicity microassay. Hemagglutination inhibition antibody was detected in 11 of the 12 children, with titers ranging from 1:4 to 1:128. CMI to rubella virus was demonstrated in only 3 of the 11 antibody-positive children. The 12th ...

Persistent bacteremia in rabbit fetuses despite maternal antibiotic therapy in a novel intrauterine-infection model.

The effect of optimized maternal therapy by bactericidal agents was evaluated in a reproducible rabbit model of Escherichia coli maternofetal infection simulating human pharmacokinetics. Intravenous antibiotic therapy was begun in the pregnant rabbit 12 h after bacterial intrauterine inoculation, using a computer-controlled pump to simulate human pharmacokinetics of ceftriaxone (1 g/day) associ...

Infection of rubella virus in pregnancy.