Medicine: Attack on Rubella

Although rubella, or German measles, often passes unnoticed in both children and adults, it is deadly to the unborn. In the winter epidemic of 1964-65, infected mothers miscarried or were delivered of 30,000 stillborn infants; another 20,000 babies had severe defects. The malady runs in cycles, and the coming winter is expected to be another bad one—unless countermeasures are taken.

Public health officials have concentrated their efforts on immunizing schoolchildren, who often transmit the rubella virus to pregnant women. Now the U.S. Public Health Service's Center for Disease Control in Atlanta is urging local authorities to turn their attention to the women themselves.

The CDC recommends immunizing the approximately 5,000,000 women of childbearing age who are considered susceptible to the disease. Blood tests developed recently make it possible to determine whether a woman has antibodies against the disease. If not, and if she is not already pregnant, she can be immunized easily. The CDC is encouraging state health departments to set up premarital and prenatal testing programs for rubella. A number of states have begun extensive testing, but so far, the procedure has been made a legal requirement only in Colorado and Oregon.