Its symptoms are fever, rash, and swollen glands. Most cases are mild. In populations that have not been immunized, rubella occurs most often in childhood. Now that most children in B.C. are immunized, rubella is not reported very often in B.C. children. However, teenage and adult infections still happen.
Rubella is usually a mild illness.
Symptoms may include a rash, slight fever, joint aches, headache, discomfort, runny nose and reddened eyes. The rash, which may be itchy, begins first on the face, and then moves downwards from head to foot, and lasts about three days. About half of all rubella infections happen without a rash. In most cases, symptoms appear 16 to 18 days after catching the virus. A person with rubella is contagious, and can spread the disease to others, from seven days before to seven days after the rash first appears.