FAQ: Congenital Measles
Congenital measles is a serious infection that can occur when a pregnant woman contracts measles near delivery and transmits the virus across the placenta to her newborn. Here is more information around this rare form of the disease.
Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known, spread through respiratory droplets and airborne particles that can linger in a room for up to two hours after an infected person has left.1 While most people associate measles with childhood illness, the virus can also cross the placenta and infect a fetus when a pregnant woman becomes infected — a condition known as congenital or perinatal measles. This form of the disease is rare in countries with high vaccination coverage, but clinicians are seeing it resurface as measles outbreaks spread through communities with declining MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccination rates.2,3