INFLUENZA SERUM

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 155, 28 December 1918, Page 8

INFLUENZA SERUM

HOW IT IS MADE,

When Dr. Cumpston, Federal Director of Quarantine, decided upon the manufacture of a special, serum for the treatment of pneumonic influenza, his first step was to send a doctor from Melbourne to Sydney to isolate the strains from the influenza patients who came ou the Niagara. Other strains were pro. cured from a quarantine officer in West Australia, and also isolated! The cultivation then began. The strains used in the- preparation are influenza, which grows on blood agar, : pneumoccus, oh glucose broth; streptoccus, and the common cold organism. : The streptococci are taken from septic patients, and grow on broth prepared from ox heart muscle and peptone. Common cold germs are cultivated on agar, which is a Japanese seaweed, preparation. Blood agar is obtained by mixing horse blood with ag»r solution. The various germs are then placed on the surface of these preparations, and stored in a heated room with a, temperature of 97 degrees (blood heat) for 24 hours. On* germ -will multiply in 20 minutes, so that at the end of the storage there are hundreds of thousands of millions of these organisms. ' ■ ■ The influenza germ is the smallest bacillus the scientists have to deal with. Its length is one 25,000 th part of an inch, and it is very delicate. The next step is the collection of the haryestj which is drawn into separate containers by syphonage. The germs are then killed with tricresol, and after having been sterilised, certain fractions of the harvest are diluted with sterile salt solution, and the special vaccine is ready for bottling and suitable for inoculation. The solutipn is placed .in-tubes, which are immediately sealed. The serum is made in.two strengths! The first dose only contains; 25 million 1 -.influenza organisms to a cubic centimetre, while the second contains 125 millions.- This is to allow the pel-son to become accustomed to the preparation before, injecting .the, stronger doee' after the* interval of wren diya s _