Implications of the international initiative against avoidable disablement ("impact") for rubella control.

The case for controlling congenital rubella as part of The International Initiative Against Avoidable Disablement rests not on the excessive prevalence of the disease but on the severity of its consequent multiple handicaps. Here is a totally preventable disease afflicting a readily identifiable section of the community that is controllable by a vaccine that is safe, noncontroversial, and simple and inexpensive in its application. Successful national programs against rubella have a potential beyond their immediate objective in promoting the use of immunization as the most powerful weapon against other vaccine-preventable diseases that are estimated to disable 5 million children annually. It is therefore essential that the practical benefits of rubella immunization be convincingly expressed in human-no less than in economic-terms and that any remaining technologic and administrative problems be vigorously explored and, where possible, be solved.