INFLUENZA SERUM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 June 1924, Page 2

INFLUENZA SERUM.

.VACCINATION OFFERS NO PROTECTION. “Vaccination did not produce any clear-cut protection against influenza,” is the i conclusion of Major H. J. Nichols, of the U.S.A. Army Medical Corps, reporting on vaccination against influenza for 1922-23, states a special correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor. In the introduction to the report Major' Nichols says that “each winter since its problem of acute respiratory diseases, active efforts have been made at the Army Medical School to test the value of vaccination against one or more of these diseases. . . The results of this work need not be discussed at this time, except to say that, with th© possible exception of pneumonia . . . no radical progress has been made in ; the solution of the problem by the control of respiratory diseases by vaccination.” The principal experiment in vacc-inat-ing against influenza was undertaken at Fort Myer under the direction of Major M. W. Hall, of the Medical Corps, who concludes that “the results shown seem to indicate further experiment with larger doses.” The result of similar work at Governor’s Island were “equally inconclusive.” The men were not compelled to be vaccinated, and 11 refused. “As soon as vaccine of sufficient promise is available it can be made obligatory for recruits, and then its full value will be evident,” it is stated, in discussing -the subject of young recruits.

The general conclusion is that “the results are not decisive, as there were not sufficient eases, but several cases of influenza did occur among the vaccinated, and this evidence, with that at Fort Myer, leads to the final conclusion that, with the doses used, vaccination with B pneumosintes did not produce any clear-cut protection against influenza. In vieiv of our imperfect knowledge of the new group of organisms of which B pneumosintes is a member, it is premature to draw any final conclusion from this vaccination experiment as to the etiology of influenza. The persistent work of the investigators at the Rockefeller Institute has revealed a new group of organisms which can be handled only with laborious technique. The key*to the influenza problem very probably lies in this group, but further work is necessary, and, at the proper time, further cooperative work should be undertaken bv the arrnv.”