Developed in the Enders laboratory of Boston Children’s Hospital (Boston,MA, USA) and Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA) from 1954 to1963, the live attenuated measles virus vaccine, ‘Edmonston’, was theproduct of multiple passages through varied cell culture systems andembryonated hens’ eggs, and studies in susceptible cynomolgus monkeysprior to introduction to adult humans and then susceptible children.Successful results enabled widespread studies in American children,leading to licensure in March 1963. Extension of clinical investigationsthen proceeded in Nigeria among health-compromised susceptiblechildren, demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of the Edmonstonvaccine among these young people. With national and internationaladoption of routine vaccination, measles was reduced to an uncommonchildhood infection in many countries and, with the progress to atwo-dose schedule, was eliminated from the entire western hemisphereby 2002. The World Health Organization’s inclusion of measles vaccine inits Expanded Program of Immunization since 1974 has reduced globalmortality from measles and its complications from several millionannually to approximately 150000 by 2011. Leading the eliminationefforts since 2001 has been the Measles Initiative, which was broadenedin 2012 to include rubella vaccine. The vaccine induces enduring(lifelong) immunity and is effective against all 23 known measlesvirus genotypes.