Studies with Live Attenuated Measles-Virus Vaccine

Abstract

Introduction Control of measles through active immunization has been the object of numerous studies. Measles first was transmitted artificially to susceptible human beings by Home,¹who exposed scarified skin of volunteers to blood from patients in the acute phase of this disease. In a similar attempt to produce active immunity, Hektoen²injected fresh infective blood subcutaneously into susceptible persons who subsequently developed measles. Failure to produce attenuated disease apparently discouraged further attempts to induce active immunity against measles. Adaptation of measles virus to growth in embryonated hen's egg and the subsequent use of this virus as an immunizing agent was reported by Rake and his associates between 1939 and 1943.^3-8Virus passaged from 4 to 108 times via the chorioallantoic route did not induce in susceptible children a significant degree of protection from naturally occurring measles,⁹and interest in this problem again waned. In 1954, Enders