POLIOMYELITIS VACCINE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27643, 27 April 1955, Page 13

POLIOMYELITIS VACCINE

Monkey Shortage May

Affect Use (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, April 26, Great hopes of saving the lives of British children from poliomyelitis by using the new Salk vaccine may be delayed because of the shortage of monkeys. The vaccine involves repeated inoculations with a preparation derived from the kidneys of dead monkeys. Reporting this today, the “Daily Herald” quoted the Minister of Health (Mr lan Macleod) as saying in the House of Commons: “The major limiting factor at the moment and for some time to come, unless a new medium is discovered, may be the shortage of monkeys.” Mr Macleod said he had appealed to the Indian Government for help in increasing supplies, and the Mpdical Research Council, which was testing the new vaccine for the Ministry, had sent representatives to Africa to seek monkeys there. A council spokesman told the “Dally Herald” last night: “We are sending* a technician to our research. centre in Africa to find out whether it is possible to fly the monkey kidneys only, instead of whole monkeys. This would make a big difference on the expense side.” 4 One reason for the monkey was that more were going to America, the “Daily Herald” said. The newspaper quoted a 8.0.A.C. official as saying: “We are flying 10,000 a month from India to America now. That is about double the number a year ago.”