Measles and pregnancy

[Pippi L.]

The 5-year-old upstairs has measles. Normally this wouldn't concern me (she's doing fine, not surprisingly), but I'm pregnant. There's only a slight chance that my daughter has been exposed (we'll know in a week -- they didn't tell anyone until just recently so the incubation period is almost over) but if she gets it -- and she's not vax'ed so it's definitely a possibility -- what are the risks to a pregnant woman? I was fully vaccinated as a kid and got a booster in the mid 90s. My rubella titers are excellent. My midwife said that if my rubella titers are good I shouldn't worry but she's doing a literature review to check. But rubella and measles are different viruses, correct? Shouldn't I be going in to get my measles titers checked? I thought I could get some good viewpoints here.

[crunchy_mommy]

Rubella is German measles... so it would depend if she had "regular" measles or german measles. If it's German, it sounds like you'd be protected with the good titers. Rubella/German measles is the one that people worry most about during pregnancy because it can cause abnormalities/birth defects. "Regular" measles, as far as I know, isn't linked to any birth defects but I think could still be a slight risk (as far as preterm labor, low birth weight, etc.) although I believe that's true of many diseases during pregnancy.

[Pippi L.]

It's regular measles. I know rubella is bad during pregnancy, but I'd never read anything about the regular measles. It's good to hear it's not usually serious.

[amnesiac]

Since this is about the illness rather than vaccine I'm moving to H&H.

[tanyalynn]

How many weeks pregnant are you?

Not to sound like a bad guy, but I'm guessing that the reason measles during pregnancy isn't a well-known danger is twofold. Back when we all got measles, _not_ getting measles in childhood was quite rare, and immunity was most often lifelong, so getting measles while pregnant probably didn't happen much. Now there's not a lot of measles around, and measles titers stick around more than rubella. And rubella infection, IIRC, doesn't impart lifelong immunity nearly as frequently as measles infection does, so when rubella was circulating, I think even women who'd gotten rubella in the past were still able to get it while pregnant, and kids with rubella aren't all that sick--harder to keep them home when they're infectious. Maybe I'm remembering some of the stuff I've read wrong, but that's my understanding anyway.

Given that treatment for measles is high doses of vitamin A, and measles is known to deplete vitamin A, I really wouldn't want to get it in the first trimester. My understanding is that vitamin A status is quite important in the first trimester--I mean, not unimportant in general, but especially then.

I think measles titers tend to stick better than rubella, so hopefully it's not an issue at all.