VACCINATION RESEARCH

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 24 March 1926, Page 11

VACCINATION RESEARCH

first step under the new ' ■; •■ 'act.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) \ ' tONDON, 9th February. It is announced that the Minister of Health, in conjunction with the Modi-' cal Research Council, has appointed a committee to inquro into and from time to time report on: (1) Matters relating to -the ...preparation, testing and standardisation of vaccine lymph; (2) the .practical methods which are available in the light of- modern knowledge to'diminish or remove any riska which may: .reiult from vaccination; (3) theMethods fit .vaccination which are moat appropriate to giye protection against risk of .smallpox infection in epidemic and_ non-epidemic periods; and to coordinate the work of investigation on these questions" in this country and abroad,, having regard to corresponding work undertaken by international health organisations, '' The committee consists of Sir Humphry Eolleston (president of the Eoyal College of Physicians), chairman; Dr. F. B. Blaxall, Dr. Q. F. Buchan, Dr. A. E. Qope, Dr. Mervyn H. Gordon, Professor J. C. Or.. Ledingbam, and Mr. J. B,; Perdrau. The secretary is Dr. J. B. Hutehinsoji] a medical officer of the Ministry of Health, Whitehall. IMPOBTANT STEP. , The appointment of this committee (writes a medieal correspondent) constitutes an important development in the system of administrative medicine in this country from various points of view. The most important and.obvious of these is that it is clear that practical effect is being given to the new Act on biological standards. "■ Under this Act the Government will assume responsibility, for the purity and strength of a whole number of biological' products, such as : diphtheria antitoxin, insulin, and calf lymph. The position as regards calf lymph to-day is that there is no guarantee as to the effectiveness of the material applied, and it is not possible for manufacturers to state in terms of quantity what exactly they are selling.' One of the main duties of the committee will be to devise a method whereby calf lymph can be estimated to a degreo of accuracy comparable with that which obtains in the case of an ordinary drug, Another point to be considered is that of preventive medicine as applied to smallpox. While everyone is fully aware of the two fact* that at the moment cases of smallpox are of a nnnvirulent type, and that even in tlio days of Jenner mild and virulent smallpox existed side by aide, there ia nothing certain known as to whether it is possible for the mild typo of the disease to change into tha virulent. Inquiries and experiments on this point will have to be made, and also investigations as to whether it is or is not possiblo to safeguard the population by some means which doeg not arouso the opposition caused by the policy of vaccination. A third feature of great interest in the appointment of the committee is that it brings Great Britain into line with other countries insofar as tho policy of standardisation is concerned. When Dr. Banting discovered insulin and its valuo in the treatment of diabetea, he took the view that the best method for preventing abuse was to take out patent rights for the material and so prevent inefficient manufacture which' might have caused indefinite damage. This method succeeded in its objects, and once a Government guarantee is given of biological standards, as for example in the case of calf lymph, a fresh step will have been taken towards making medicine an. exact science. "