Abstract

PIP: This article reviews the history of measles vaccine development. Such a review is considered useful for understanding the relationship of the different brands of live attenuated measles vaccine available. In 1954, the measles virus was isolated from an 11-year old boy from the US, David Edmonston, and adapted and propagated on chick embryo tissue culture (CE). The CE adapted strain, known as Edmonston A, was too virulent for vaccine purposes. The strain was attenuated by means of further passages on CE fibroblasts, resulting in a 2nd generation attenuated virus designated as Edmonston B. Again, the strain was too virulent to be applied on a large scale. Laboratories continued to pass Edmonston B on CE until a 3rd generation of more attenuated strains was developed. These strains, which are known by different names and differ from each other in the number of times the parent strain was passed on CE, provide the seeds for the vaccines now commercially available. Among the trade names for live attenuated measles vaccine derived from the Edmonston B strain are Rimevax, Attenuvax, Rouvax, Lirugen, Morbilvax, Mevilin, and Moraten. At the same time, a USSR scientist developed a different parent seed know as Leningrad 16. The measles vaccines supplied through the World Health Organization's programm e on Immunization in the Americas are prepared from seeds derived from Edmonston B.