Prevalence of Congenital Rubella Syndrome after Inadvertent MR Vaccination of Pregnant Women in 2003

Rubella vaccine contains live attenuated virus that can be transmitted to fetus causing severe abnormalities in the fetus during pregnancy. However there isnt enough studies to show any congenital rubella syndrome(CRS) in these cases, yet. During mass campaign for Measles-Rubella vaccination in December 2003 in Iran, many pregnant women were vaccinated accidently. In this study we evaluated the prevalence of CRS in pregnant women that had referred to Imam Khomeini & Rasool Akram hospitals in 2003. Patients and In this cohort study, 810 pregnant women 14-25 years of age who received Measles-Rubella vaccine accidently were studied. The cases were grouped in to "susceptible" and "immune against rubella" before vaccination by the status of IgG avidity to rubella vaccine. Then susceptible women were followed up to delivery and their children were followed up to 2yrs of age. Two neonates that were born from susceptible women, showed Rubella-specific IgG in cord blood sera but did not show signs compatible to congental rubella syndrome. According to our findings, the risk of being infected with rubella vaccine virus for fetus of mothers that were accidently vaccinated with rubella vaccine is minimal.