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Review
. 2021 Jan 2;17(1):224-227.
doi: 10.1080/21645515.2020.1765623. Epub 2020 Jun 12.

Vaccine-associated Rubella - a report of two cases and a review of the literature

Affiliations
Review

Vaccine-associated Rubella - a report of two cases and a review of the literature

Sean Wei Xiang Ong et al. Hum Vaccin Immunother. .

Abstract

We report the clinical characteristics of two adult patients, presenting with a typical erythematous rash consistent with rubella disease after MMR vaccination. Both patients had an uncomplicated clinical course and recovered uneventfully. One patient was confirmed to have vaccine-associated rubella via sequencing of virus isolated in viral culture. The other patient had a pharyngeal swab positive for rubella virus PCR, with sequencing matching the vaccine strain. There are few reports of clinical disease from rubella vaccine-strains in the literature. Previous authors have reported severe disseminated vaccine-associated rubella in both immunodeficient and immunocompetent patients. Further study is required to ascertain the incidence, risk factors, and clinical characteristics of this condition; as well as investigate the extent of horizontal transmission to guide infection control recommendations.

Keywords: MMR; Rubella; genotyping; vaccine; vaccine strain.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A: Typical erythematous maculopapular rash from Case A; B: Top panel shows uninfected Vero/hSLAM cells; bottom panel shows cytopathic effects (CPE) of rubella virus from Case A. Images at 10x magnification

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