COUGHS ARE OFF

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2311, 2 December 1925, Page 7

COUGHS ARE OFF

NOSE VACCINE GIVES IMMUNITY.

The possibility that by applying an appropriate vaccine to the lining membrane of tho nose we may be able in tho near future to obtain protection against colds, influenza, and other inhaled diseases, is foreshadowed in a report to tire Medical Research Council on his inquiry into the virus of cow-pox and. smallpox by Dr. Alcrvyn Gordon, consulting bacteriologist to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London.

To deal with big outbreaks of these diseases it is desirable that an efficacious method less troublesome than inoculation should be discovered. Having found that the virus of cowpox heated to 55 degrees Centigrade and injected under the skin of a rabbit produced immunity (protection against infection), Dr. Gordon applied the same dose to the mucous lining of the rabbit’s nose and produced equal protection. He writes "Further experiments ary desirable to determine the extent to which this physiological property of the nasal mucosa can be exploited for the practical production of immunity. "Since all that is required is the mere application of the antigen (microblc substance) to the nasal mucosa it is conceivable that ultimately immunisation by the ■ nasal route may be found to possess a high value in the case of threatened epidemics of resplratory-borno diseases, a contingency in which preventive medicine is fit present gravely at fault. "As in such infectious maladies the virus is air-borne the nasal mucosa Is the surface of the body most exposed to attack. This site would appear to be the outpost where specific immunisation is most needed and most likely to prove successful in the spread of such inhaled infection.” The results of the investigations give promise of a practical mode of preventing not only cow-pox, but also smallpox, colds, influenza, measles, and other diseases due to filter-pass-ing microbes. In their introduction to the report the Medical Research Council point out that the problem of filter-passers is one of the most important of the time. Accordingly advances in methods of investigating them—which Dr. Gordon’s investigation promises—will bo particularly welcome. An immediate application is the discovery of a means of diagnosing smallpox with certainty and distinguishing it from chicken-pox. While the rabbit serum prepared against cow-pox Will agglutinate equally well (lie virus of smallpox it docs not agglutinate a similar suspension containing the virus of chicken-pox. From other evidence described In the report there is ground for hoping that before long it may bo possible to prepare an effective serum for the treatment of smallpox.