Vaccination of Infants with Living Attenuated Measles Vaccine (Edmonston Strain) with and without Gamma-globulin

Abstract

The first trials of measles vaccines in the United Kingdom were reported in 1961 by Aldous et al., when three living attenuated vaccines derived from the Edmonston strain (Enders et al., 1960) were compared at the Fountain Hospital. In many cases vaccination reactions were too pronounced for the vaccines to be suitable for routine use. However, in view of the high complication rate of measles in young children (Miller, 1964), it was considered important to continue clinical trials of measles vaccine rendered less toxic by further attenuation. The present paper describes four subsequent trials of vaccines prepared from the Edmonston strain but which had undergone a further series of passages in chick-embryo or chick-cell tissue cultures. In some of the trials the vaccines were given alone, and in others concurrently with gamma-globulin.