Rubella virus and Juvenile arthritis link?

[Guest guest]

Hello all..

Was doing a net search on JRA tonight and came across the article

below. Not sure if any of you have seen it before, as it's from

1985, but I thought I'd pass it on anyway. Interesting find,

seeing that just recently, I was asking for your opinions on

whether I should get the rubella vaccine, after my doctor found

that I wasn't immune to the virus.

I read that children are usually given the MMR (measles, mumps

and rubella) vaccine at 1-15 months of age, then again between

the ages of 4-6. I got juvenile arthritis at the age of 9, and

had my second MMR at the age of 8. Really makes you wonder, eh?

I'm curious as to whether they have done any further research on

the possible link between the rubella virus and onset of juvenile

arthritis. The fact that my doctor told me I could get chronic

joint pain from the vaccine seems to tell me that most doctors

are well aware that rubella can cause arthritis in people.

Is it possible that people who do not seem to benefit from AP

could actually have arthritis caused by a viral infection instead

of a bacterial infection? And if someone does have arthritis

caused by a virus, does that mean they are doomed to suffer with

arthritis forever?

So many thoughts...

Cheers,

~Kyla

________________________________

N Engl J Med 1985 Oct 31;313(18):1117-23

Persistent rubella virus infection associated with chronic

arthritis in children.

Chantler JK, Tingle AJ, Petty RE

We isolated rubella virus from lymphoreticular cells in 7 of 19

children with chronic rheumatic disease, including patients with

systemic-onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (Still's disease) (1

of 5), polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (2 of 2),

pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (2 of 6), and

seronegative spondyloarthritis (2 of 6). In contrast, rubella

virus was not isolated from the control group, which included

eight normal subjects and eight patients with other connective

tissue diseases or traumatic joint effusion. In most members of

the study group, mononuclear cells from both synovial fluid and

peripheral blood were examined. Rubella virus was isolated from

both cell populations in three patients, from only peripheral

blood in one, and from only synovial fluid in two. In the

children with systemic-onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, only

peripheral blood was examined, and of the five samples analyzed,

one was shown to have rubella virus. Virus was isolated on more

than one occasion from four of seven persons. Persistence of

rubella virus in lymphoreticular cells in 35 per cent of these

cases of juvenile arthritis supports the view that the virus may

be an etiologic agent in chronic human joint disease, but further

work will be required to support this suggestion.