Child health · UKMLA & AKT
Rubella (German measles)
A free high-yield preview for the UKMLA Applied Knowledge Test, covering how to recognise this condition. The full SA Note notes add investigations, management and complications, with practice questions on this topic.
Key high-yield points
- Incubation: 14-21 days; up to 50% subclinical
- Prodrome (1-5 days): low-grade fever, malaise, mild URTI, conjunctivitis
- Suboccipital and postauricular lymphadenopathy - highly characteristic, often precedes rash
- Rash - pink-red discrete maculopapular, starts on face, spreads cephalocaudally to trunk and limbs; fades within 3 days (unlike measles)
- Forchheimer spots - petechiae on soft palate; supportive but not pathognomonic
- Arthralgia/arthritis - more common in adult women; small joints of hands and wrists
- Fever - usually mild (37.5-38.5°C), unlike the high fever of measles
- Infectious period: 7 days before rash to 7 days after rash onset
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