German measles (historical note) definition - medical term
In 1941 N. M. Gregg, an Australian ophthalmologist,
recognized that infection of the mother with German measles (rubella) during early
pregnancy could malf orm an embryo and cause a characteristic syndrome of congenital
malformations. The first feature Dr. Greeg noticed was cataracts. Gregg published
his pioneering observations in 1942.
Rapid progress in understanding rubella, however, was not possible until the
rubella virus could be grown and demonstrated in tissue culture This feat was reported
in 1962 by Weller and Neva and by Parkman, Buescher and Artenstein. It could then
be learned that if a pregnant woman acquires rubella, the virus persists throughout
her pregnancy, is still present at birth, and continues to be shed by her infected
child for many months after birth. Even if the child born with rubella looks normal,
the child can be contagious and infect nurses, doctors, medical students, and others
caring for it.
In its "Milestones In the History of Medicine" The New York Times Almanac for
1966 notes that: "Paul Parkman and Harry Myer (Americans develop vaccine for rubella
(German measles)." In reality, several vaccines against rubella were developed and
tested. Other contributors included Lepow, Veronelli, Hostetler, and Robbins. Frederick
Robbins subsequently shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954, albeit
for the "discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of
various types of cells." (Robbins shared the prize with John Enders and Thomas Weller).
Tissue culture was the key to understanding and preventing such scourges as polio
and congenital rubella.
Common Misspellings: german meseals (historical note), german measels (historical
note)
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