The opportunity and obligation to eliminate rubella from the United States
W. A. Orenstein, K. J. Bart, A. R. Hinman, S. R. Preblud, W. L. Greaves, S. W. Doster, H. C. Stetler and B. Sirotkin
The licensure of rubella vaccines in the United States in 1969 offered the
opportunity to prevent the devastating consequences of congenital rubella
infection, including miscarriages, therapeutic abortions, and congenital
rubella syndrome (CRS), with its average lifetime cost of more than
$220,000 per case. With the widespread use of vaccine, rubella transmission
in the United States has been reduced to record low levels. Epidemics of
rubella and CRS, previously reported every six to nine years, have not
occurred, and since 1980, following decreases of rubella incidence rates in
the postpubertal population, the endemic incidence rates of CRS have also
begun to decrease. We have both the opportunity and the obligation to
hasten elimination by (1) ensuring that susceptible females of childbearing
age are vaccinated, (2) initiating and/or enforcing existing legislation
requiring proof of rubella immunity for all children enrolled in schools,
(3) intensifying surveillance for both acquired rubella and CRS, and (4)
aggressively controlling rubella outbreaks.
