Prenatal Rubella

Abstract

This study has demonstrated that cultural and serological studies are necessary for the proper identification of rubella infection in the newborn. In the future, much diagnostic information must come from our virus laboratories. The morbidity of this infection during prenatal life is severe especially in those children exhibiting positive virus at birth. The incidence of hearing loss in the Baltimore epidemic was high. Virus infection in the inner ears of our temporal bones resulted in changes of varying degrees within the cochlear duct and the saccule. Damage to the ears of a child frequently results in differing degrees of deafness on the two sides. A preliminary report was made on this study in 1966 (Bordley et al).