Rubella, a disease with potentially horrible consequences for unborn children, has been eliminated from the Americas, a scientific panel set up by global health authorities said on Wednesday.
The disease, also known as the German measles, once infected millions of people in the Western Hemisphere. In an outbreak in the United States from 1964 - 1965, 11,000 fetuses were miscarried, died in the womb or were aborted, and 20,000 babies were born with defects.
"Although it has taken some 15 years, the fight against rubella has paid off," said Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, which made the announcement in conjunction with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Unicef and the United Nations Foundation. "Now, with rubella under our belt, we need to roll up our sleeves and finish the job of eliminating measles, as well."
The Americas region is the first region to eliminate rubella. The European region, which includes Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia, hopes to be next, according to the World Health Organization.
Some regions are still not close enough to set firm target dates, so there is no chance that the disease will be eliminated worldwide before 2020, said Dr. Susan E. Reef, team lead for rubella at the C.D.C.'s global immunization division, who joined in the announcement.
Each year around the world, 120,000 children are born with severe birth defects that can be attributed to rubella.
Rubella isn't the first disease to be wiped out first in the Americas. Smallpox was eliminated in 1971 and polio in 1994. Smallpox has now been eliminated worldwide and polio is almost gone, having clung on for decades with most cases originating in Pakistan.
In children and adults, rubella usually only produces a relatively mild rash and fever. However, it is devastating to fetuses during the first trimester with many being born deaf, blind from cataracts and with severe permanent brain damage.
The last case was confirmed in Argentina in 2009. It took six more years to declare the disease eliminated because its symptoms are more difficult to detect compared to polio, smallpox or measles.
Public health authorities had to review 165 million records and do 1.3 million checks to see if there were any cases. All recent cases had to be genetically tested at the CDC to confirm they were caused by known imported strains of the virus and not by domestic ones.
Like measles, there is no cure for rubella, but the disease can be prevented by a very effective vaccine. In the United States, that shot usually contains three vaccines and is known as M.M.R., for measles, mumps and rubella.
