A blood test for rubella

A blood test for rubella doctors recommend make women before pregnancy. In the absence of antibodies to the causative agent of the disease women can get vaccinated. A pregnancy after two months after setting vaccination occurs without any complications.

What is the blood test for rubella

Antibodies to rubella is the immunoglobulins produced in the human body in response to viral load. Antibodies are of two types: IgM and IgG, while IgM antibodies are markers of infection that occur in the first days of the disease, reach their maximum number by the third week, disappearing after 1.5 months.

High titer IgG becomes the reason of development of acute rubella infection. If IgM is not detected – so, immunity to rubella the patient is not: in other words the patient does not had chicken pox or the disease was transferred long ago. Most likely, the immunoglobulin has not started or has ceased to produce.

To clarify the situation helps detection of IgG antibodies, they appear in the blood later than IgM, and the titer reaches a maximum value after 30 days after the first symptoms of the disease, and a number of IgG antibodies persists in the body throughout life. The presence of IgG provides lifelong immunity, protecting the individual from re-infection.

When conducting a blood test for rubella can be detected antibodies IgM and IgG were not identified, it indicates a recent infection. When registering a large number of antibodies of one or the other group should be suspected the acute course of the pathological process.

If blood is detected only IgG, it means that the disease is long gone, but the body has a strong immunity to infection. In the absence of antibodies to judge the lack of immunity to rubella.

It is important to remember that a blood test for rubella should be done before the planned pregnancy, and at impossibility of conducting such a study in a timely manner, it is recommended to go to the lab in the early stages of pregnancy. This will help to determine the degree of risk of infection with rubella during pregnancy.