CURING INFLUENZA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22064, 21 September 1933, Page 10

CURING INFLUENZA

RECENT DISCOVERIES

LATEST LINE OF SEARCH

CAUSE OF DISEASE KNOWN.

The recent discovery of the cause of influenza is likely to cause the lay public —as distinct from those engaged in medical and scientfic research—to ask one particular question: “ What is going to be the practical results? ” This question was put to a well-known London physician, and his reply was: “ The answer is best supplied by reference to what is done with distemper in dogs.” But, first, ho said, it was necessary to distinguish between a vaccine and a serum, which he explained as follows: “ A vaccine consists of dead microbes or dead virus. The vaccine used in Sir Almroth Wright’s method of protecting against typhoid fever consists of a suspension of dead typhoid bacilli, killed by gentle heat. For canine distemper a vaccine is made by adding the chemical formalin, a potent antiseptic, to a suspension in water of Infected tissues taken from a dog or ferret which is suffering from distemper. Vaccines are used to prevent a disease —sometimes to cure disease, but that is another story. ROUSING THE ANTI-BODY. “ A curative serum is obtained by injecting an animal with a microbic poison (a toxin in the scientific jargon) ; the first do.se given *is small and the animal responds by making a substance which neutralises the poison. Then a larger dose of the poison is given and more anti-poison (called anti-body) is made. Proceeding in this way it is easy to obtain a serum of such potency that relatively enormous doses of poison can be neutralised.

“It is important to note that the larger microbes such as the diphtheria bacillus or the typhoid bacillus can be grown in bottles or flasks on artificial medium. Viruses so far have not been cultivated. A great difficulty therefore arises in applying these bacteriological methods of prevention and cure to diseases caused by a virus—such as influenza has now been found to be. “ The only source of virus is the body of man or animal suffering from the disease. This difficulty has been overcome in a more or less satisfactory way. “ In dog distemper the virus for vaccine is obtained, as pointed out already, from the tissues of an animal suffering from distemper. The tissue richest in virus is taken. This is spleen or liver In the dog. With influenza the tissue containing most virus is the nose and throat. Doubtless efforts will now be made to discover a richer source of virus —unless by chance some happy discovery of methods of cultivation is made—and from such source a vaccine will be prepared. “ Anti-sera to virus diseases are obtained in the following manner:—An animal is given the disease, and is allowed to recover. Its blood then contains anti-body. Further doses of virus are then given. These now cause no trouble, and the anti-body content of the blood rises rapidly. Such a blood is now used as a source of curative scrum. The pig, for example, which has had influenza may be found to yield a sufficiently powerful serum to be of value in influenza. This, of course, remains to bo seen, but it is now evident that research is on the right linos, and, with persistent effort, backed by generous public support, we can with confidence leave the medical scientists to carry forward these hopeful researches to a successful conclusion."