Live attenuated rubella virus vaccines prepared in duck embryo cell culture. II. Clinical tests in families and in an institution.

Abstract

Duck embryo cell culture rubella virus vaccines prepared with the HPV-77 (Meyer-Parkman) and the Merck (B-level attenuation) strains of virus were evaluated in a large-scale family study in the open community and in an institution. Of 265 initially seronegative children vaccinated with the HPV-77 virus in duck embryo cell culture, 97% responded serologically with a geometric mean hemagglutination-inhibiting (HI) titer of 1:53.2. There was no apparent clinical illness and no serologic evidence for contact spread to 262 susceptible siblings or to 34 maternal contacts. The performance of the Merck B-level vaccine in duck embryo cell culture in the smaller institutional study was essentially the same as that of the HPV-77 except that the mean HI titer was almost three times as great (1:148.3). Both vaccines proved safe and efficacious in children, and community studies are in progress in larger numbers of persons.