The multihandicapped child with congenital rubella: impact on family and community.

In 1967, a hospital-based education program was created to provide services to multihandicapped children with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). Since then 214 children have been enrolled, including 126 (59%) with laboratory-documented congenital rubella infection. An assessment of the ongoing training and life needs of those children with CRS enrolled in the program and the concomitant impact on families and community facilities has documented the general failure of the children to progress toward independence in spite of extensive educational programs and support services. The human and economic costs of these severe rubella-caused disabilities already have been enormous and will continue to be so for many years because even in adulthood these victims will require 24-hr supervision and care. The extensive rubella-vaccination effort made since 1969 has resulted in a progressive decline in the percentage of children requiring enrollment in this program whose disabilities are due to congenital rubella. The last such enrollee was born in 1981.