Viremia in a recipient of HPV-77 Rubella virus vaccine.

A live rubella virus vaccine, HPV-77 (High Passage Virus - 77 tissue culture passages) was administered subcutaneously to eight rubella-susceptible children housed in an isolation ward. One blood specimen, taken on the tenth day after vaccination, from one of the eight vaccines, yielded a rubella virus. This virus had laboratory markers which were "vaccine-like." To our knowledge, this represents the first isolation of rubella virus from the blood of a recipient of HPV-77 vaccine. However, the consistent antibody responses among vaccinees and the regular presence of rubella virus in their pharynges argue that viremia occurs in almost every susceptible recipient. The most logical explanation for the failure to document viremia in other recipients of HPV-77 vaccine is that the viremia is ordinarily low grade or transient or both.