It is no longer recommended during pregnancy to be screened for rubella. These are the new guidelines from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. The update for physiological pregnancy includes three recommendations, the first of which recommends not offering screening for this infection during pregnancy. This recommendation is supported by: a vaccination coverage rate in the general population (October 2022) of 93.8% at 24 months of age (2020 birth cohort) and a vaccination coverage rate at 18 years of age (2003 birth cohort) 93.3% for the first dose and 89.0% for the second dose; by an incidence of congenital rubella syndrome of less than 1 in 100 thousand live births in 2013, with an absolute absence of cases since 2018.
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Furthermore, Italy was included in 2021 in the WHO list of countries that have achieved the elimination of endemic transmission of the virus. Since vaccination represents the only effective rubella prevention strategy, the Physiological Pregnancy guideline also recommends offering postpartum rubella vaccination to all susceptible women – i.e., women who do not have documentation of having been vaccinated with two doses of vaccine or previous infection – and to inform them about the free tests to verify susceptibility and the free vaccination in the preconception period.
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«After the World Health Organization declared rubella eradicated in our country by 2021, screening for this infection is no longer recommended. I consider it a wrong decision”, commented Roberto Burioni, professor of microbiology and virology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan, in X. «Indeed – he specifies – women of childbearing age should be encouraged to check their serological situation (also against other viruses), in order to be able to experience a future pregnancy in the most peaceful and safe way possible». “The elimination of endemic transmission of the rubella virus – underlined the ISS – is a great public health success, the result of tenacious work which has made it possible to achieve high vaccination coverage in the population and thus to dispense with pregnancy screening”.
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