[Congenital german measles encephalitis (author's transl)]

German measles is an infections exanthematous disease, long regarded as completely harmless. The clinical symptoms are banal and often go unnoticed. In complete contrast is the severe malformation of the embryo after infection early on in pregnancy, first discovered by Gregg in 1941. The virus infects the embryo via the placenta and either causes death or impairs the differentiation of embryonic tissues, causing malformation. What is understood today under the congenital German measles syndrome is considerably more extensive and includes, in addition to malformation, growth retardation, premature birth as well as possible disease of organs or organ systems continuing well after the postnatal period. We were recently able to study a case of congenital encephalitis caused by the German measles virus and here too able to demonstrate histopathologically the persistence of the infection.