The development of homologous neutralizing antibody during a Type 1 poliomyelitis epidemic

Abstract

1. Sera taken from seventy-nine individuals who had been examined for poliomyelitis antibodies shortly before a Type 1 epidemic, were examined for the development of antibodies to polio-virus 6 months after the epidemic.2. Ten of eleven (91%) susceptibles aged 5–7 years, 44% of those aged 8–9 years, 25% of those aged 10–14 and only one of fifteen (7%) 15 years or more old had developed neutralizing antibodies to Type 1 polio-virus.3. In the school which the younger subjects attended, one boy developed paralytic poliomyelitis while the school was in session, but the amount of minor illness in the epidemic period was not significantly different from the 3-year average.4. The comparison between these findings and the notification rate for the province suggested that the chance of an infection with polio-virus during this epidemic, leading to a clinically recognizable attack of the disease, might have been as much as eighteen times higher in adolescents and adults than in the 5–9 age group.5. The epidemiological significance of these results is discussed.We have pleasure in acknowledging our indebtedness to Dr J. H. S. Gear for the report on the sera collected before the epidemic, to Dr W. Murphy, Medical Officer of Health, for data about notifications, to Dr A. M. Douglas for assisting by collecting some of the bloods, to the Principal and staff of John McGlashan College for their readiness to assist us at all times and to all those subjects who allowed us to take a further specimen of their blood for this investigation.