In 1814 German researchers first described the disease "German measles"—later known as rubella from the Latin rubellus meaning "reddish." Rubella is a single- stranded RNA virus spread from person to person via respiratory droplets. It usually causes a mild illness (symptoms include low-grade fever and swollen lyn-iph nodes followed by a generalized rash), but in pregnant women it is an altogether different matter. In fetuses, it can result in congenital rubella syndrome, a condition characterized by deafness, mental retardation, cataracts, heart defects, and diseases of the liver and spleen.
Between 1963 and 1964 a rubella epidemic in the United States resulted in 30,000 babies being born with permanent disabilities as a result of exposure to the virus. The tragedy prompted the National Institutes of Health to launch a campaign to find a vaccine. Two pediatricians, Harry Martin Meyer (1928- 2001) and Paul Parkman (b. 1932), isolated the rubella virus and then went on to develop the first vaccine against rubella. The team grew the virus in cultures of kidney cells taken from African green monkeys, seeding each crop from the preceding crop. Finally, after two years spent growing seventy-seven crops, they inoculated rhesus monkeys with what they called High Passage Virus 77 (HPV-77). The vaccinated monkeys showed no signs of rubella but developed antibodies against the virus, while their cage mates, who were unvaccinated, remained free of infection. In 1965 the team started the first clinical trials in women and children, and again showed that the virus did not spread and that subjects developed antibodies.
The rubella vaccine was later refined into a vaccine known as MMR for mumps, measles, and rubella.
