[Rubella and congenital cataracts]

Between April 3, 1977 and June 6, 1980, 97 children with congenital cataracts and 97 evenly matched control children were examined in order to clarify the biological criteria of congenital rubella and to estimate its importance in the etiology of congenital cataracts. Although the age limit had been fixed at 60 months, the 1978 rubella outbreak accelerated the immunization in young children and resulted in difficulties in interpreting some results. All children presenting with congenital cataracts associated with clinical symptoms of rubella embryopathy displayed anti-rubella antibodies including anti-rubella IgM up to the 13th month: they represent 16% of cases with congenital cataracts in this series. The rubella etiology could not be proven in children with clinically isolated congenital cataracts.