Grant to Professors For Study of Measles May Produce Vaccine

Two professors at the School of Public Health have received a $25,000 grant for research to develop a vaccine against the German measles virus they discovered last October.

Thomas H. Weller, Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Tropical Public Health, and Franklin A. Neva, associate professor of Tropical Public Health, were awarded the grant by the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Educational Foundation.

Although discovery of a vaccine may still be several years away, research on the virus is "urgently needed," Neva said yesterday. "We're trying to discover the basic properties of the virus so that we or some other group can ultimately develop a vaccine."

The Cerebral Palsy Foundation made the grant in view of the fact that a woman who contracts Geramn measles during the first few months of a pregnancy may give birth to a child with cerebral palsy or some related disease of the nervous system.