Attenuated Rubella Virus

ALTHOUGH the need for an effective, safe rubella-virus vaccine has long been recognized it was not until 1962, when the virus was isolated and propagated in the laboratory,1 , 2 that development of a vaccine became theoretically possible. Interest in preventing rubella and associated teratogenesis was further intensified by observations made during the recent epidemic of 1963–1964. Although our early attempts to produce a killed-virus vaccine were unsuccessful, development of a live-virus vaccine seemed feasible, and approaches that had been used to attenuate other viruses were explored. In attempts to produce attenuation rubella viruses were subjected to protracted passage in tissue cultures. . . .