Word: rubella
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...telltale rash of German measles (rubella) can come and go unseen during a night's sleep. In fact, the disease is generally so mild that a nationwide epidemic of it three years ago caused no panic. An estimated 30,000 pregnant women were among those infected, however, and rubella can wreak tragic damage in unborn children. For one of every two rubella babies, that damage includes at least a partial loss of hearing. "The deafness we are seeing now-the aftermath of the epidemic-is more severe than anyone anticipated," says Dr. Fred Linthicum Jr. of the children...
...sure exactly how the rubella does its disabling work, but one result is the stunted growth of thousands of microscopic hair cells on the acoustic nerve in the recesses of the inner ear (see diagram). Doctors recently proved, by passing a wire under the hair cells and stimulating the nerve, that there is no nerve damage. But Dr. Edgar Lowell of the John Tracy Clinic* points out that "we still haven't cracked the neural code that transmits messages from the hair cells to the hearing nerve below." The ear conceals other mysteries as well, and there...
Early Aid. But if cure is not possible, adjustment to partial hearing is-and "early diagnosis is crucial," says Johns Hopkins' Dr. John Bordley. Sadly, rubella makes that difficult. The disease can also cause mental retardation and slight brain damage. In a child's first year or two, the symptoms of both ailments are similar to those of deafness: the child fails to associate sounds with their sources and respond directly to external stimuli. He will also not learn to talk on schedule. But simple tests by doctors can usually discover whether the cause of such symptoms...
...Government's ambitious plans apply only to the common "seven-day" measles, or rubeola-not to be confused with the three-day "German" measles or rubella, for which a vaccine has not yet been perfected. Though rubella early in pregnancy has gained an evil reputation as a killer and crippler of the unborn, it is otherwise a mild and almost harmless infection. Not so with common measles. "Of all the childhood diseases that remain," says Dr. H. Bruce Dull of the National Communicable Disease Center, "measles is the one with the most risk...
...Spread. Drs. Meyer and Parkman spent two years growing 77 crops of rubella virus, each "seeded" from the preceding crop. At this point, they inoculated rhesus monkeys with what they called HPV-77 (for high-passage virus). Happily, the vaccinated monkeys showed no signs of rubella, but developed antibody against it, while their cagemates remained free of infection. The first human testing of the vaccine was equally sensitive: the subjects had to be children with no history of rubella, and no possible contact with pregnant women...