# Rubella completely eliminated in the Americas **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 30, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917 "2015-04-30T18:29:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/1 "2015-04-30T18:29:12Z")
[Rubella is done for](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/health/rubella-has-been-eliminated-from-the-americas-health-officials-say.html), at least on this half of the world. I’m sure this great news is entirely due to juice cleanses and eliminating gluten. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/2 "2015-04-30T18:50:58Z")
I remember when everybody in my elementary school was given a rubella vaccination; I think it was in late 1969. It is also the only time I have been injected with anything from what I think is called a “vaccine gun” (it looked a little like a staple gun). ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/3 "2015-04-30T19:01:53Z")
Blow an anti-vaxer’s mind and point out that rubella is a [cause](http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/340) of autism. So the MMR vaccine helps prevent autism. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/4 "2015-04-30T20:52:48Z")
Well, this thread didn’t go quite the way I expected. But that’s OK. Alternative medicine[sup]1[/sup] people are frequently amusing in their righteous self-delusion. [sub]1. Not medicine.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/5 "2015-04-30T21:19:50Z")
Juice cleanses will work just fine now to keep you from getting rubella, at least in the Americas 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/6 "2015-04-30T22:14:10Z")
Only when and until Madagascar opens it’s ports for international trade do we know the world is safe. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/7 "2015-04-30T22:14:26Z")
I caught rubella as an 11 year old, waaaay back in the day. Didn’t feel sick, ran a slight fever, was chafing at the bit to go back to school. On my first day back to school, I started bleeding from my gums, my ears, my eyes, under my fingernails, everywhere. I was rushed to the hospital. I can still remember the ambulance picking me up at school. My mom in the jump seat looking petrified. They thought I had leukemia, which is those days was pretty much a death sentence for a kid. But thankfully, I had something a little less terminal - hemorrhagic perpera - a bleeding disease sometimes brought on by rubella. They removed my spleen - which was the only treatment they had in those days - and I spent weeks in the hospital and eventually it left my system and I recovered. But I, for one, couldn’t be happier to see rubella eradicated. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/8 "2015-04-30T22:29:28Z")
Yes, rubella isn’t serious for most children or adults, but if a first-trimester fetus is infected, deafness, blindness and/or severe brain damage may be present in the newborn, or the fetus might be miscarried. Reason enough, I think, to take rubella seriously. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/9 "2015-04-30T22:35:25Z")
> [@Alt/Conventional medicine treating Cancer, Rubella, other diseases \[split off from Rubella thread\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alt-conventional-medicine-treating-cancer-rubella-other-diseases-split-off-from-rubella-thread/718940/23): > > Well, most people who catch rubella get better with no treatment beyond bed rest and chicken soup. I’m sure that if you add vitamin C and juice to that regimen, most of them will still get better. > > Of course, a few people who catch rubella are seriously injured or die, and everyone who catches rubella can spread it to other people, some of whom may be in the unlucky group. > > Very few cancers are contagious. I was sad that Steve Jobs died after he tried to treat himself with juice and vitamins, but hey, his body, his choice. > > fwiw, I know several people who have recovered from cancer after conventional treatment, which can include chemo, radiation, surgery, or fancy experimental immunological treatments. And I know others who died. I had German measles as a kid and that was indeed part of the treatment my mother used but it was also long enough ago that we had a house call from the family doctor twice and baby aspirins was part of the treatment. As to Steve Jobs, I am pretty sure he had pancreatic cancer which is one of the forms that is sadly still fairly unresponsive to treatment. I don’t think he was choosing juice and vitamins over a sound treatment in his case but I think it was a “Hail Mary” for a cancer that was pretty much untreatable. Even when caught early the vast majority of pancreatic cancer victims die within 5 years. Maybe I’m wrong on the details though of his thought process. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/10 "2015-04-30T22:47:49Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > As to Steve Jobs, I am pretty sure he had pancreatic cancer which is one of the forms that is sadly still fairly unresponsive to treatment. I don’t think he was choosing juice and vitamins over a sound treatment in his case but I think it was a “Hail Mary” for a cancer that was pretty much untreatable. Even when caught early the vast majority of pancreatic cancer victims die within 5 years. Maybe I’m wrong on the details though of his thought process. Steve Jobs did not have the common (and typically deadly) form of pancreatic cancer (ductal-type adenocarcinoma). He had a neuroendocrine cancer, which is potentially curable by surgery. It is [speculative](https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-death-of-steve-jobs/) to argue that Jobs’ trying alternative treatment for 9 months before getting surgery shortened his life. We can’t really say for sure. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/11 "2015-04-30T22:51:38Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Steve Jobs did not have the common (and typically deadly) form of pancreatic cancer (ductal-type adenocarcinoma). He had a neuroendocrine cancer, which is potentially curable by surgery. > > It is [speculative](https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-death-of-steve-jobs/) to argue that Jobs’ trying alternative treatment for 9 months before getting surgery shortened his life. We can’t really say for sure. Oh sorry, I should have checked. I lost a friend to pancreatic cancer almost exactly a year ago, and based my post on what I learned during his very short fight against it. It is a real shame Jobs delayed treatment if he had a more curable form. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/12 "2015-05-01T00:17:05Z")
From this post on, let’s move the conventional medicine/alternative medicine debate to another thread. If people want it, I can even move all of the related posts in here to start their own thread. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/13 "2015-05-01T00:31:41Z")
PLEASE take all debate out of this thread to its own thread (for those who may have made posts before they saw my above one). ETA: **Nevermind, I have moved the hijacking discussion out of this thread** and [to this (new) thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=755790) Please continue any debate about conventional and alternative medicine there. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/14 "2015-05-01T03:36:27Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I had German measles as a kid and that was indeed part of the treatment my mother used but it was also long enough ago that we had a house call from the family doctor twice and baby aspirins was part of the treatment. Do kids even get aspirin anymore for these sorts of illnesses? I would be a bit worried about Reyes syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubella-completely-eliminated-in-the-americas/718917/15 "2015-05-01T16:54:39Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Do kids even get aspirin anymore for these sorts of illnesses? I would be a bit worried about Reyes syndrome. It would seem to be very rare, I think most Baby Aspirins are now in use by adults at risk for heart attacks as a regular daily dose. My kids were recommended Tylenol or the like and not aspirin when needed. In my case, it was 1969 or maybe 1970 when I had Rubella. So a different time.