POLIOMYELITIS FOLLOWING VACCINATION AGAINST THIS DISEASE

Abstract

During the past year in the United States, several thousand individuals, mostly children, have received subcutaneous and intracutaneous injections of treated poliomyelitis virus in the hope of acquiring immunity against the natural disease. The two different forms of treatment to which the virus was subjected were intended to render it innocuous when thus used as a vaccine. Through those responsible for the production of these vaccines, through several health officers and through others, word has come to the United States Public Health Service of the development, at suggestive intervals following these injections, of cases of paralytic poliomyelitis with high fatality. Though possibly subject to some correction, it is believed that the following statements represent closely the facts in each case: A boy, aged 5 years, had his first symptoms of poliomyelitis six days after receiving the second dose of vaccine A in the left arm,