Antibody response in infants to the poliomyelitis component of a quadruple vaccine.

BJuA vaccinated regions was initiated in November, 1958, and repeated random collections of stool specimens were made throughout 1959 and 1960. In 1958-9 a total of 2,322 specimens was collected in the four vaccinated regions, and 2,964 specimens in 10 non-vaccinated provinces; in 1960 a total of 7,486 stool specimens was collected from healthy children throughout the whole country. At least three important observations can be made from the results gained hitherto. (1) The initial spread of viruses which foUows their mass introduction into the child population is self-limited, and the attenuated strains (Sabin) do not appear to persist in a community longer than a few months. (2) There is no evidence that the attenuated viruses spread beyond the regions into which they had been introduced. (3) An extraordinarily reduced spread of polioviruses could be demonstrated at the peak of the season, after the nationwide use of oral vaccine in the spring of 1960. We are indebted to many co-workers without whose help this programme, completion of surveillance, could not have been carried out. Special acknowledgment is made to the staff of the Epidemiological Department of the Ministry of kHealth of Czechoslovakia; epidemiologists and virologists from the Hygiene and Epidemiological Service in many regions, particularly Drs. Addendum Since this paper was prepared for publication a new nationwide oral vaccination was carried out in 1961 in Czechoslovakia. In April, 1961, approximately the same number of children of the same age-groups as in 1960 received type I live poliovirus followed in June by a mixture of types 2 and 3. This means that about 90% of the child population have been revaccinated. As regards the incidence of poliomyelitis, not a single virologically confirmed case of paralytic poliomyelitis was-revealed in Czechoslovakia up to December 20, 1961. In our virological surveys, carried out in the same manner as in previous years, not a single poliovirus strain was recovered from about 2,800 stool specimens collected at random from healthy children in March as well as approximately 600 samples collected in September, 1961, and tested up to the time of writing. The two regimes recently recommended by the British Ministry of Health (Brit. med. J., 1961b) for the active immunization of children against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and poliomyelitis during the first two years of life involve either three or four injections of combined diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine (triple vaccine) and three injections of Salk poliomyelitis …