Infectious Diseases

Rashes in pregnancy - HPA guidelines, information and advice

Pregnant lady

These pages aim to provide an easily accessible resource for Health Professionals who need guidance, information or advice on the management of women who become infected with, or are exposed to, a communicable disease during pregnancy.


Guidance on the management of rash illness and the exposure to rash illness in pregnancy.

This section is based on a Report of a Public Health Laboratory Services (now the Health Protection Agency) Working Group published in November 2000. Membership of the Working Group included epidemiologists, public health specialists, laboratory virologists, general practitioners, infectious disease specialists, an obstetrician and a midwife. The intact guidelines can be accessed via Guidance on the management of, and exposure to, rash illness in pregnancy.

This guidance aims to help decision making in the investigation and management of pregnant women who have 'a rash compatible with a systemic viral illness', or who have had contact with a person with such an illness. It addresses particularly rubella, parvovirus B19, and varicella-zoster virus infection, but considers other infective causes of rash illness in the UK. It gives the magnitude and degrees of risk to the fetus in terms of outcomes for the gestation at which maternal infection occurs. This guidance aims to help decision-making. It has no legal status: it will be updated as and when new evidence becomes available.

 

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