QUEST FOR LIVE VACCINE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27633, 14 April 1955, Page 7

QUEST FOR LIVE VACCINE

LIMITED IMMUNITY OF SALK METHOD

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, April 13. The new professor of microbiology at the Otago Medical School (Professor J. A. R. Miles), commenting today on the news of the success of the Salk vaccine, said that work was being done on the production of a live vaccine that was expected to give longer immunity than the Salk vaccine, and might quite well replace it. Professor Miles, who was recently engaged in research on poliomyelitis at Adelaide, said that the American announcement confirmed what had already .been known about the Salk vaccine, namely, that it could give protection for a limited period. He recalled that Dr. Thomas Francis, of Michigan University, had said there was some decline in the immunity from the vaccine after five months. From other experiences with Ruled’ virus vaccine, protection could not be expected to be long-lasting, he said.

From the report, said Professor Miles, it appeared that Dr. Salk was urging that children who were vaccinated last year be given a further injection to boost their immunity as soon as possible.

It would be some years, he felt, before the medical profession would know how often booster doses would be necessary to maintain the immunity built U P by the Salk vaccine. The possibility of improvements in the vaccine later must not be allowed to stop the use of one that had been shown to give at least a substantial measure of protection, said Professor Miles.

Or> e should be cautious in telling the public that this vaccine was the complete answer to poliomyelitis, he said . was. however, the largest single step in the fight against the disease.