Abstract

Available vaccines used in protection against rubella employ strains of virus attenuated by passage in animal cells. The first vaccine that was introduced in Britain, the Cendehill vaccine (Cendevax),¹ is grown on tissue culture of rabbit kidney cells. Recently another rubella vaccine (Almevax live attenuated, Wistar RA 27/3), grown on human diploid cells, has been introduced. This vaccine induces antibodies as effectively as earlier vaccines, and the indications for its use are similar to those for the Cendehill vaccine.^{1 2} It is very important that pregnant women, women who might be pregnant, or women likely to become pregnant within 2 months, must not be vaccinated.