I think a warning, with some education about the rubella vaccine, should have been printed for those reading the Feb. 8 front-page article "Rubella outbreak spreading quickly."
Women who may be pregnant but do not yet know they are could have an increased risk of having a baby with birth defects. So, especially for those women "trying to get pregnant," it would be safer if a pregnancy test determined that the woman is not pregnant at the time the vaccine is administered.
In fact, it would be a good idea for all women of child-bearing years, who are sexually active, to have a pregnancy test done before having the vaccine administered.
I am familiar with a case of a woman, two to three weeks pregnant, who did not know this and had a rubella vaccine given to her by her doctor, who was also ignorant of the fact that she was pregnant. The results were catastrophic for the baby and, of course, for the parents as well.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.