Community Rubella Immunization

To the Editor:— On Sunday, May 17, 1970, a total of 190,845 children received rubella vaccine in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh and surrounding communities). Since this probably represents the largest one-day rubella immunization program conducted in the United States to date, some observations made during and following the program may be of interest to those contemplating similar campaigns. The target population was all healthy county residents aged 12 months through 12 years. This age group was selected because it was the one most likely to be susceptible to rubella (and therefore to propagate it in future epidemics) but containing few, if any, females who were presently or soon to be pregnant (for whom the vaccine is not yet proved safe). During the planning stages there was concern that (1) only a small proportion of the target population would come for immunization, (2) boys, because their benefits (no future pregnancy) were