Infectious Diseases: Vaccine Against German Measles

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Two medical researchers working for the U.S. Public Health Service announced last week that they had developed a vaccine against German measles (rubella) that appears, from the first test results, to be both effective and safe. Their report to the American Pediatric Society, declared PHS Surgeon General William H. Stewart, indicates that this disease, notorious as a killer and crippler of the unborn, "can be brought under control in the not too distant future."

Delicate Balance. The successful vaccine was made in a mere four years after the elusive rubella virus was originally persuaded to grow in the laboratory (TIME, Aug. 3, 1962). It was a virological feat equivalent to the running of the first four-minute mile.* Yet even this speed was not enough to save an estimated 30,000 U.S. babies from inborn defects such as cataracts, heart malformations and mental retardation. For in 1963-65, history's worst recorded epidemic of German measles swept inexorably across the U.S., disabling more infants than did the thalidomide disaster in Europe. In addition, the U.S. epidemic caused probably 20,000 miscarriages and stillbirths.

The rubella tamers are two pediatricians still in their 30s, Dr. Harry M. Meyer Jr. and Dr. Paul D. Parkman. Though German measles is almost invariably trivial for all but the baby in the womb, the raw virus could not be used as a vaccine because of the danger that newly vaccinated children might spread the infection to pregnant women. The researchers' task was to weak en the virus, and strike a delicate balance, leaving it infectious for those who are vaccinated, but noninfectious for their contacts. They decided to domesticate the virus in cultures of kidney cells from African green monkeys.

No Spread. Drs. Meyer and Parkman spent two years growing 77 crops of rubella virus, each "seeded" from the preceding crop. At this point, they inoculated rhesus monkeys with what they called HPV-77 (for high-passage virus). Happily, the vaccinated monkeys showed no signs of rubella, but developed antibody against it, while their cagemates remained free of infection. The first human testing of the vaccine was equally sensitive: the subjects had to be children with no history of rubella, and no possible contact with pregnant women.

At the Arkansas Children's Colony for the retarded, near Conway, Ark., the inmates were housed 16 to a cottage and could be easily isolated. With the parents' consent, the researchers injected the vaccine into eight girls in one cottage, left the other eight unvaccinated for comparison. The first eight developed antibody but no fever or rash; the other eight were unaffected —in other words, the vaccinated children did not spread an infectious virus. Later tests in Arkansas have raised the vaccinated total to 34, with similar results, and the vaccine, although admittedly still experimental, is now being distributed to several university medical centers for confirmatory trials. If all goes well, it should be ready for general public use within two years.