The name rubella is derived from Latin, meaning “little red.”
Rubella was initially considered to be a variant of measles
or scarlet fever and was called “third disease”. It was not
until 1814 that it was first described as a separate disease
in the German medical literature, hence the common
name “German measles”. In 1914, Hess postulated a viral
etiology based on his work with monkeys. Hiro and Tosaka
in 1938 confirmed the viral etiology by passing the disease
to children using filtered nasal washings from persons with
acute cases.