Rubella and autism: the real story

[hedgehog]

I always knew that pre-natal exposure to rubella caused babies to be born deaf and blind. I was a kid during the 1964 epidemic. What I didn't know is tha it is estimated that about 6% of the kids with congenital rubella syndrome develop autism. In fact, it was the autism caused by the 1964 rubella epidemic that helped squash the theory that poor parenting causes autism.






http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/157/3/438#T1

http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=1176

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51912-2005Mar20?language=printer

[depakid]

1. Rubella is bad news

which is why either proof of vaccination or a titer showing immunity is required before they'll admit you to college or grad school in Oregon.

[donco6]

2. Merck didn't cause rubella?

Sorry.

Just f-ing fed up with the anti-vaccine threads.

[kestrel91316]

5. Me, too. I'm getting more than my usual snark going.

[hlthe2b]

7. FIrst vaccine-related post that gave me chuckle today..

:toast:

[illinoisprogressive]

3. I knew it caused retardation as well. Lucky I was highly immune

[kestrel91316]

4. No, no, no! Vaccines produced by those greedy evil Big Pharma

corporations cause autism.

Didn't you get the memo?

[uppityperson]

6. Nice to get the "you caused autism by poor parenting" crap gone.

Rubella can be nasty, esp pre-natal.

[bedazzled]

12. i wish it was gone -- lots of folks don't understand asperger's

and still blame me for my son's behavior. mostly
uneducated folks (like my mom!)

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Interesting.

As I recall one of the insidious things about rubella was that kids presented with symptoms that could be mistaken for other minor conditions unlike measles (rubeola,) which was about as subtle as a Mack truck. Often by the time a kid was diagnosed with rubella the pregnant women around the child had been exposed for some time.

[mrcheerful]

9. I have a younger brother that was born in 1965 who was part deaf

He could hear loud sounds if they were close to him, if I remember right he had 20% hearing in his right ear and 10% in his left. Looking back I remember him blasting the TV but soon he stopped doing that and would turn the sound off, he was around 5 at the time. That september they tried sending him to school, that went over real well, half wa to school the bus had to stop because he was climbing out the side window of the bus. He wasn't allowed on the school bus after that so mom took him to school and by october he was also barred from attending school until my mother had him checked for retardation. He was mis-diagnosed as having severe retardation and was sent to a "special school" for kids "like him". When he was around 8 a teacher in the school noticed that my brother paid attention when she was facing him but stopped when he had his face turned away from her or she hid her face so she reported it to the school and they did a hearing test on him, thats when they found out his level of deafness. He was then transfered down to the Michigan school for the deaf where they found out that my brother was one of the 10 highest scorers of the schools aptitude test. They tried giving a hearing aid but he refused to wear it and when made to wear it he would turn it off, he said the world was to loud and made to much noise. I wonder how many other kids out there were treated the same as my brother? Yes, the 3 oldest kids picked up German measles from school and exposed my mother while she was carrying my brother.

[donco6]

10. In all seriousness . . .

My brother had rubella when I was a kid. Since then, he's developed what I believe is a rather severe case of Asperger's Syndrome - and I think that's related to autism. He cannot answer the door. He cannot answer the phone. He communicates through email - even at work, where he is moderately successful (he works with numbers all day). He lives in the house I grew up in - alone. He has a brilliant mind, and writes fairly well. But he cannot tolerate any human contact. It's so sad. I have no idea what to do. He's 50 now. . .

[bedazzled]

13. is your brother aware of the symptoms of aspergers?

sounds like he's an educated man.

it's never too late for some social/pragmatic
training?

there's an asperger's forum here -- maybe you could
point it out to him. if he communicates via email
he might find a helpful contact over there?

my son's nine and even though his case is rather
mild (knock wood) it's a hard row to hoe.

good luck -- you must worry about him a lot!

[hedgehog]

11. Here's a thought - what if all the kids who developed symptoms

after their immunizations were actually exposed to various viruses while in the office waiting for their shots? It's not really that far fetched. Many recent measles outbreaks have been traced back to a single sick kid sitting in a hospital emergency room. I can remember taking my son in for his first well baby exam and the nurse hustling me right out of the waiting room to the exam room so we wouldn't be sitting there with other people.