PREVENTION OF MEASLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22137, 15 December 1933, Page 12

PREVENTION OF MEASLES

USE OF SERUM , \ LARGE SCALE EXPERIMENT. (Fsou Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, October 27. The report of the London County Council on the 1931-32 measles epidemic describes for the first time the result of the preventive use of measles serum on a large scale. ... . ~ 1 The serum used was derived not only from measles-convaletfcent, _ but from healthy adults. The scarcity of oonvaescent'serum made this a necessity, and is was reasoned that since the average adult is immune from measles, his Wood ■would possess specific, “ anti-bodies. This contention proved correct, ihe scrum was used • with two objects, either t© ! prevent the child fronl contracting measles, or to attenuate the attack. The investigation included the study ot 2362 children of all ages up to 10. Ot these, 680 were treated by convalescentserum, 1475 by adult serum, and 207 were not injected and acted as controls. The remarkable success of this preventive treatment is indicated by the following results:— . ~ , In 90 per cent, of the cases in which convaleseent-sprum was used, measles was entirely prevented. Where adult-. ' serum was employed to prevent infection, nearly 80 per cent, escaped. Among the untreated children who acted as controls, only 21 per cent, escaped infection.