ALTHOUGH it appears that live, attenuated rubella vaccines will soon be available for general use, the problem of providing direct protection to the present susceptible, child-bearing-age female population remains. Use of immune globulin (IG) as a method to protect the exposed pregnant woman is controversial.1 Conflicting opinion on the effect IG has against rubella infection1-7 undoubtedly reflects the interplay of several factors, ie, dose of IG, variation in antibody titer of IG lots, time of administration of IG in relation to time of exposure to virus, immune status of the woman at the time of exposure, lack of laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of clinical impressions that an illness is indeed rubella, and the high rate (50% or greater) of subclinical rubella.
The primary goal of IG administration is to prevent the teratogenic effects of the rubella virus. Because of the previously-mentioned factors, it is difficult to design well-controlled studies to