Rubella Virus Vaccine (HPV-77-DE 5)

STUDIES involving small closed population groups have demonstrated the safety and antigenic efficacy of an attenuated rubella virus vaccine, HPV-77,¹and derivatives of it grown in duck embryo (DE) tissue culture.²The first large scale trial in Taiwan,³early in 1968, provided confirmation of earlier findings. The study to be described in this report represents an open field trial of HPV-77-DE 5 (Merck). It was carried out at the peak of rubella incidence in a community of approximately 60,000 people located in southwestern Connecticut. Study Population and Methods Letters explaining the program of study were sent to the parents of all children from 1 through 8 years of age. Vaccination was offered on a voluntary basis, excluding only those children with a known history of rubella or with a medical contraindication. Vaccination clinics were held in a local school on two successive weekends with follow-up visits eight