Abstract

Since last year when we discussed protection against measles with vaccines and gamma globulin,¹ three vaccines have become available in Britain. All are ultimately derived from the Edmonston strain of virus: Mevilin-L (Glaxo) and Wellcovax (BW) are preparations of live attenuated virus, and Mesavac (Pfizer) is a formalin-killed virus. Clinical trials in Britain^{2 3} indicate that these vaccines give effective protection against measles. Mevilin-L and Wellcovax have not been directly compared, but seem to be about equal in effectiveness and in their liability to cause fever and other constitutional disturbance. The basic NHS cost of Wellcovax is marginally less (14/-) than that of Mevilin-L (14/3).