Rubella infection can be extremely harmful to fetuses. Women who contract the virus in the first trimester of pregnancy will likely have a miscarriage or deliver a stillborn or permanently disabled baby. Forty years ago in the U.S., before there was a vaccine, a rubella epidemic resulted in about 12,000 babies being born deaf or blind and deaf.

Rubella’s decline in the U.S. began when a vaccine was introduced in 1969 and accelerated when Latin America and Caribbean countries began mass rubella immunization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say over 93 percent of children under three have been vaccinated.