Mother with Rubella Gives Birth to Infant with Rare Blood Cancer

Woman suffering from rubella gave birth to an infant with rare type of blood cancer, contracted when it was a fetus.

According to a report in the Times of India, a special case of cancer has left doctors surprised.

A 27-year-old mother gave birth to an infant with congenital B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a rare type of blood cancer, with congenital rubella infection. The mother had been suffering from rubella herself. The baby weighed 3 kgs at the time of birth and had palpable purpuric sports and ecchymotic patches.

What left the doctors in shock was the fact that even before birth, when the baby was only a fetus, it had already contracted ALL.

Times of India quoted Dr Dhan Raj Bagri, an assistant professor at JK Lon Hospital, who conducted a study on this case,

There are three main causes of cancers which are genetic, environmental and developmental but in this case, we have suspected its link of ALL with rubella. We have never seen a baby born with B-cell ALL in the hospital. 

He added that the association of ALL with rubella in this case suggests that the virus itself may have the potential to cause congenital leukaemia. A wide variety of single gene traits; constitutional and familial conditions are associated with an increased risk of developing haematological malignancies.

The infant was provided treatment at the government-run JK Lon Hospital, where she was provided with treatment. It has been claimed by the doctors that this was the first such case of B-ell ALL reported from the hospital.

The infant died in three days of her birth.

Rubella and Pregnancy

Rubella is only a mild problem in adults and adolescents. But when it occurs in pregnant women, it causes a ‘syndrome’ of health problems in their babies, including serious birth defects, mental disabilities, premature delivery or even death. It’s almost as if the infection bypasses the adults without any serious complications but in pregnant women latches onto the baby, often with disastrous consequences.

There is no cure. The syndrome can cause mild to severe problems but coupled with the lack of awareness and delayed detection, the children who survive the disease end up with lifelong physical or social disabilities.

You can’t cure the disease but you can prevent it. There’s a vaccine that’s available.

At least 30,000 children are born with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) each year in India, out of a lakh babies born globally with the syndrome. Those are just new cases.

Therefore, proper awareness needs to be created for people to get vaccinated in time and prevent the contraction of the disease.