Autism spectrum disorder among children with congenital rubella syndrome

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common disoder among children, and we do not know all of the causes of ASD. However, there is some evidence that periods with higher risk of developing ASD are before, during and after birth. In order to describe ASD characteristics of children with congenital rubella syndrome, we conducted a prospective study on 295 children with congenital rubella infection, in the period 2012 - 2017. We found that, of the 295 children, 99 (33.6%) have ASD. The risk of contracting ASD among children whose mothers had rubella when they were 0 - 8 weeks old and 9 - 16 weeks old is OR = 10.5 (95%CI 3.43 - 32.10), while that of children who are ≥ 17 weeks old when their mothers contracted the disease is OR = 5.11 (95%CI 1.75 - 14.97) respectively. The study also found a significant relationship between ASD and other conditions, including premature birth,  neonatal septic, congenital heart disease, hearing impairment, mutism and developmental delays in gross motor, fine motor-adaptive, language, personal – social skills. Therefore, pregnant women need to be protected against rubella with the MMR vaccine.