What does the rubella vaccine consist of?
Hello again The rubella vaccine is called MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) it is given at age 12-15 months and again at school entry at 4-6 years. A live attenuated(weakened) form of the virus is propagated in animal and human cells. If you want to know how to virus is weakened read on…. The rubella vaccine virus is “weakened” by a process called “cell culture adaptation. The virus was then “grown” in human embryo fibroblast cells. These same embryonic cells have continued to grow in the laboratory and are used to make rubella vaccine today. By growing rubella virus in human embryo fibroblast cells, it became less and less able to grow in human cells that lined the back of the throat or in cells from an unborn child. This happened because the genes that told rubella virus how to reproduce itself were changed. Now the virus reproduced itself very poorly. Whereas natural rubella virus reproduced itself thousands of times during natural infection, the rubella vaccine virus reproduced itsel
