INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4402, 9 October 1934, Page 4

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

PREVENTIVE VACCINES,

Two new vaccines against poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis have been announced recently in the United States. Neither has as yet been tried in enough human cases to demonstrate ■whether they will actually prove effectve in preventing the disease, but used on experimental animals they have shown such a high proportion of success that many physicians believe the agelong battle against poliomyelitis may actually be nearing its end.

The first of-the new vaccines to reach public notice was that developed by Dr. Maurice Brodie, of New York University, working in the Bureau of Laboratories of the Now York City Health Department. This vaccine consists of an extract from the spinal cord of rhesus monkeys which have died of poliomyelitis. The active virus of the disease is (killed by the addition of formalin, but the material which excites the body to generate antibodies for the disease apparently remains unimpaired.

Dr. Brodic’s vaccine attained national prominence in July, when it was known that officials of the Bureau of Laboratories had attested their faith in it by volunteering for treatment. Each received a second injection of a little more than a teaspoonful of the vaccine, an 11-day interval havingelapsed between the first injection and the second. In about three weeks tests were to be made to determine if the material had produced or increased immunity to poliomyelitis. Tested in a number of rhesus monkeys, the only animals beside man that are attacked by the disease, Dr. Brodiie’s treatment produced positive immunity in moi-e than three-quarters of them.

If the present test in adults gives satisfactory results the next step will be to try the treatment with children. It can now be done with assurance of perfect safety, for animal and human tests have shown conclusively that there is no danger. The more recent announcement was made by D'r. John A. Kolmer, Professor of Medicine at Temple University, and Director of the Research Institute of Cutaneous Medicine, of Philadelphia. Dr. Kol-mei-’s vaccine, like that of Dr. Brodie, is made from the spinal cord of rhesus monkeys. However, unlike the Brodie vaccine, in Dr. Kolmer’s material the virus is not killed. It is weakened, “stunned” perhaps, by the addition of sodium ricinoleate, a chemical made from castor-beans.

In this condition the virus cannot produce the disease —a fact fully demonstrated by Dr. Kolmer, who has injected it into a number of monkeys and also into himself and his assistant. But apparently it can stimulate the system to generate anti-bodies, the invisible defences which protect against disease. .It is the purpose of the vaccine to bring- about the formation of these anti-bodies, which confer lasting immunity upon persons who have actually had poliomvelitis.

Poliomyelitis l-esearch has been greatly hampered by the fact that the research workers must use rhesus monlkeys, which are common in India, but are relatively expensive. Both of the new vaccines have been developed through such experiments, and are now ready for tests on human beings. Both have already been given such tests to a small extent. Dr. Kolmer has recently announced, that ho is preparing- to vaccinate his two young sons, and later to administer the treatment to 18 other Philadelphia children.

IT either or both vaccines prove successful, it will probably not be necessary to vaccinate all children. According to Dr. W. Lloyd Aycock, Director of Keseareh of the Harvard Infantile Paralysis Commission and one of the foremost authorities on the disease, the virus of poliomyelitis is wide-spread and naturally immunises the majority of people. What is needed, in Dr. Aycock’s opinion, is a means of determining what persons are not immune, and of giving them artificial protection.