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January 24, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"MMR Ignorance 'Increases Rubella Risk'"

Press Association (UK) (www.pressassociation.press.net) (01/19/03); Wheldon, Julie

A British charity stressed recently that parents' lack of information about the risks of not having their children immunized with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine could put pregnant women and their unborn babies at risk for rubella.  The charity Sense warned that children who were not vaccinated against rubella were at an increased risk of contracting the disease and transmitting it to pregnant women who do not have immunity. Contracting rubella during the early stages of pregnancy puts the baby at risk of being born with congenital rubella syndrome, which can cause deafness and blindness, among other things.  According to a recent poll commissioned by Sense, over one-quarter of the adults surveyed did not know any of the side effects of rubella on an unborn child.  Sense suggested that the increased lack of awareness among people 15 to 34 years of age--nearly 40 percent were unaware of the disease's dangers--could be because that age group does not remember outbreaks of the disease in age of vaccines.

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