POLIOMYELITIS IN FRANCE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27665, 23 May 1955, Page 11

POLIOMYELITIS IN FRANCE

New Vaccine To Be Tried (Rec. 11 p.m.) PARIS, May 21. Vaccination of groups of French children with a new anti-poliomye-litis vaccine will start soon, Professor Pierre Lepine, head of the virus department of the Pasteur Institute, said today. “Until now the vaccine has not been used experimentally on humans,” he said in an interview. “In the near future—about two months—it will be given to groups of children in Paris and other towns.” Vaccination of a cross-section of children, all voluntary patients, will be carried out under the supervision of the French Health Ministry. The results will be carefully noted. In some cases, more than one dose of the vaccine will be given. Professor Lepine said he had worked on the vaccine for three years. It was based on the same principle as that of the American, Dr. Jonas Salk, he said today, “but it is a different product.”

Mr Pierre Goube, an expert who works in the virus department of the Pasteur Institute, where the vaccine was developed, said its distribution was limited at present to the institutions where the injections would take place.

In an article in the weekly review, “Medical Press,” he said the Pasteur Institute did not consider that the vaccine was the final answer to the problem. Scientists would continue to experiment on a second injection which would reinforce the effects of the first. Mr Goube said the duration of immunity from the disease must be definitely established to avoid accidents and disappointments which a too hasty generalisation would inevitably cause.