Rubella

Rubella research papers overview the medical health aspects of the disease and can include treatment or symptomatology. You dictate exactly what you need your project on rubella to be about.

The human population has long been aware of the disease or virus known as rubella. Also known as German measles, it is generally considered to be a simple childhood disease that runs its course within a few days . However, when women develop the disease during their first trimester of pregnancy, rubella may have serious consequences for the unborn child. As a result, rubella has been the subject of scientific study for many years.

The rubella virus is of the rubivirus genus, which is the only known member of the Togaviridae family. Humans are apparently the only host that may contract this infection.

• The virus is a single strand of RNA and has about 10,000 nucleotides.
• These are enclosed in an icosahedral nucleocapsid.
• The glycoproteins, E1 and E2, are embedded in a host-cell-derived lipid envelope that surrounds the virion.
• Antibody production is directed mainly against the more exposed E1.

There is also sequence variation in the RNA and DNA of the nucleotides of the virus . The reason for this variation is that it allows the virus to adapt to environmental changes and replications conditions. When the nucleotide varies, this may result in changes in the virion's aminoacid composition. This is usually seen as antigenic variation. Generally, there is no structural change. However, the virus does not seem to vary in major antigenic sites.

The fact that the rubella gene is heterogenic indicates two important factors:

1. The first is that this enables the tracking of the associated chains of transmission and may even allow the identification of the origin of the infection.
2. Secondly, it allows for identification of new strains that may potentially spread within a population that is immunized.

The symptoms of rubella are varied. Typically, they include a sore throat, runny eyes, low-grade fever, joint pain, swollen glands, and a rash. These symptoms can be so mild that the infected individual may not realize that he or she has the virus.

However, this viral infection can become extremely serious when a pregnant woman contracts the disease. During the first trimester of pregnancy, rubella is especially problematic. Since organ development occurs during the first trimester, the infection can infect and affect every organ that is developing within the unborn child. Children exposed to the virus prenatally may be born with hearing loss, blindness, or both, cardiac difficulties, mental retardation, and other developmental problems. These birth defects are known as congenital rubella syndrome, or CRS.