An inexpensive, technically simple hemagglutination-inhibition test has been developed for determining—in about three hours—whether a person has immunity to rubella.
"We feel that it's likely the test will see wide application," Harry M. Meyer, Jr., MD, predicted while describing it to the 35th annual meeting of The American Academy of Pediatrics in Chicago.
Dr. Meyer, chief of the Laboratory of Viral Immunology, Division of Biologics Standards, is one of the National Institutes of Health investigators working with a rubella vaccine from a live attenuated virus strain (JAMA196:6 [May 9] 1966).
This was the first public discussion of the newly-developed hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test.
It involves the erythrocyteclumping principle used in studies of influenza and other diseases, Dr. Meyer told JAMAMedical News.
Accompanying Dr. Meyer to the late October pediatrics meeting in Chicago was another member of the research team, Paul D. Parkman, MD, head of the laboratory's