Adult Women Vaccinated With Rubella Vaccine: A Preliminary Report on Controlled Studies With Cendehill Strain

IN JUNE 1968, Cooper and Krugman¹ observed transient arthritis in women receiving the dog kidney-adapted derivative of HPV-77. Subsequently, Stokes et al² reported 15 cases of arthralgia and arthritis reactions in 35 susceptible adult women vaccinated with HPV-77 rubella vaccine passed five times in duck embryo (DE) cell culture. These reactions were rated as mild to severe and included one case in which rubella virus was isolated from an affected knee joint. Extending these observations, Cooper et al³ reported 14 cases of arthralgia and arthritis manifestations, ranging from mild to severe, in 25 seronegative adult women vaccinated with HPV-77 DK12 rubella vaccine, and four mild arthralgic reactions in 13 adult women vaccinated with Cendehill rubella vaccine. In a comparative study by Horstmann et al,⁴ utilizing HPV-77 DE₅ plus γ-globulin and Cendehill vaccine alone in seronegative adult women, arthritic manifestations were noted in four of 12