Live Rubella Vaccines in Adults and Children

FETAL death and malformation of the newborn associated with a substantial increase in rubella cases is anticipated in the United States in 1970 or 1971. The best means for preventing this event is in the proper application of an effective vaccine. The vaccine might be given either to children alone, en masse, to decrease the rubella reservoir, or to susceptible adult women as well. The HPV-77 rubella virus¹,²propagated in cell cultures of duck embryo³⁻¹³has been the most extensively tested of all the candidate rubella vaccines to date. This vaccine proved highly effective in evoking rubella antibodies in children without causing detectable clinical reaction and without contagiousness to susceptible children or to maternal contacts. Contrary to the findings in children, a portion of adult women⁹who received the HPV-77 vaccine developed mild rubella with arthritis and arthralgia. It became important, therefore, to determine the age range