CONGENITAL CATARACT AND OTHER ANOMALIES FOLLOWING RUBELLA IN MOTHER DURING PREGNANCY

Abstract

A new concept of certain congenital anomalies has developed in the past few years with the discovery of defects in babies born of mothers who had rubella during the first three months of pregnancy. It has been more than a year now since Reese¹ reported 3 cases of congenital cataracts in infants born in the United States of mothers who had rubella in the first month of pregnancy. This report followed the initial ones of Gregg² and of Swan and his co-workers,³ from Australia, who were the first to call attention to these startling conditions. Gradually cases are being recorded by other men throughout the United States, notably Erickson,⁴ of Pasadena, Calif., who reported 11 cases in October 1944, and Perera,⁵ of New York, who recently reported a case. Winter and Lucic⁶ found 9 cases in the pediatric service of a large naval hospital