TYPHOID INOCULATION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2420, 27 March 1915, Page 31

TYPHOID INOCULATION

WHAT IT MEANS.. PROTECTION AGAINST RULES; SAYING THE SOLDIER'S LIFE A _ bacteriologist, writing in the "Daily Mail," gives the-following forceful reasons for typhoid vaccination: — So long as human nature remains what it is, there will be cranks. The most virulent of these are cared for by the State. The others, and they are in the majority, remain outside the pale of tho asylum. The particular crank we have in mind at the present moifient is the anti-vaccinator. The authorities have politely requested recruits to submit to typhoid vaccination. Why? The equipping of the men, from the military point of view, for this gigantic struggle is in good'hands, and when "the Day" comes we know they will quit themselves like men and like Britons. But there is one foe more deadly than the Hun—a foe whose toll -of life is greater than that ever levied by the bullets of an enemy on any battlefield of history. We call it 1 'typhoid fever." ~ • To send raw reoruits into the trenches against a highly-trained foe would be murder. To expose men, unprotected, to the risk of typhoid infection is equally criminal. : Not alone for the individual's sake but because an epidemic might so reduce our fighting personnel that tho tide of war would go against us*. Just consider the fate of a nation, of an empire, might depend on a few drops of typhoid vaccine per man. (Jan you imagine sane men neglect-, ing to attend to a matter so vital ? Yet, thanks to that insidious foe within our gates—the crank, the anti-vaccinator— that is actually what is happening. * * * Infection with typhoid fever germs may be avoided by carefully observing certain rules of which I give two: . 1. Never drink water which has . not first been boiled, for boiling will ■ surely kill all- typhoid germs. 2., Never',' eat with unwashen hands. But \vhen a'man is red with blood and mad with .thirst, the veneer of civilisation crumbles; away and these excellent rules aro' as jf they had never -been. If the soldier is to he protected at all against typhoid fever, that protection must be conferred on him before he leaves these shores, - and it must bo siic'h that it entails 110 subsequent attention to rules.

Such a protection may be obtained by submitting to anti-typhoid inoculation.- To understand how this is brought

about let us consider- briefly what happens when a man takes typhoid fever. Ihe body becomes invaded by typhoid germs. Perhaps ( only a small number lind an entrance 111 the first place, but these few propagate so quickly that in a short time there are millions living in the patient's body. These germs are armed, their weapons being called toxins or poisons, and by means of these the germs may speedily cause death. Why not death in every case? Because in every human body there is a small army of little bodies or "cells," as we call them, whose duty it is to guard against the entry of foes from without. They are the garrison of the fortress of the body of man, and they are ever on duty day and night, and know no rest or sleep. They', too, aro. provided with weapons—weapons of defence—and . they are thus prepared in a general way to resist the attack of the ordinary germs which are always lurking about the outside of the body, waiting for a favourable moment to invade. But while they are prepared in Q general way to resist ordinary germs, they have not the special, armament necessary to enable them to take the offensive against a new foe such as the typhoid germ, with whose weapons of offence they are not yet familiar. The result is that while the body is being overrun by the typhoid invaders, the defending cell army are trying to defend and at the same time are learning how to manufacture weapons of offence wXich wiH overcome the unfamiliar weapon or toxin used by the typhoid invader. The patient in whose body all this is happening is now suffering from what is known as typhoid fever. Whether he dies or gets better depends entirely on whether this little army of defenders are able to tp-n out sufficiently quickly and in sufficient numbers the weapons of offence necessary to overcome the typhoid germ. _ If he recovers he is a changed man, m one respect at least, for whereas the defending cell army was able to protect the body from the attacks of certain ordinary germs before his illness, it Is now provided with a new weapon directed solely against- the special typhoid germ. This meansthat if living typhoid genus attempt to invade his body again they can do ho harm, as his army of cell defenders are now ready for them. In other words, ho is not likely to sue-, cumb to a second attack of typhoid fever. * .1* * « ' 1 , ■ It is just here that Nature has given the bacteriologist the hint how to train the army of cell defenders to resist invasion by typhoid bacilli without suffering the patient to run the risks- attendant on an attack of typhoid fever.' It is done in this way: Dead typhoid germs are used, for, though dead, they still contain the weapons of offence with which they were armed during, life. If <v V nj i e ? t t ' lese c ' eac ' typl'O'd germs into ii. ± • nmu, the weapons of offence, the toxins, of these dead germs will provoke the army of cell defenders to

manufacture weapons able to oounteract those of the invaders.

Why does the patient not take typhoid if his body is thus invaded? Because the invading germs aro dead and cannot multiply, and so cannot produce an overdose of their weapons —viz., the toxins.

"After much investigation the correct dose of dead germs and their toxins has been found tfut; ami it lias been found out further that if a. second dose, twice as strong as the first, is given after .an interval of ten days, the protection against typhoid fever is very much increased. But we cailnot introduce a poison into the body without some reaction taking place. One must expoct, therefore, kome slight discomfort or an out-of-sorts feeling for somo hours after the injection. Some men, however, never feel any discomfort at all, while others may feel "seedy" for : 24.-48 hours afterwards. As, however; the men generally get 2448 hours' leave after inoculation, this is no great disadvantage. The actual' introduction of the needle under the skin is scarcely felt, and the amount injected does not exceed 8 drops for the first dose and 16 drops for the second. The former, contains 500 millions, the latter 1000' millions of dead typhoid bacilli. How is this vaccine made? These typhoid germs are grown in tubes of pure broth, in an incubator. ' They are thereafter killed by lieat and their number counted. Thereafter means are taken to make doubly sure that 110 living germs remain in the vaccine. Its purity having thus been ascertained, it is now ready for inoculation. There is nothing in all this that anyone can take exception to, for the vaccine contains nothing which can cause-disease. At tli6 same time the toxins present, whijh are. in too small amount to damage the body, are nevertheless 'sufficient to cause the army of cell defenders to forge weapons able to neutralise these toxins. And when Nature thus makes weapons of offence and defence against germs she always itfakes an excess so that there are plehtj; and to spare in case other living typhoid germs should invade the body. Look round on the men who have already submitted to vaccination and say, jf you can, in what way their health has suffered permanent injury. Their risk of typhoid is over. Yours, if you are unvaccinated, is to come, and six feet of French soil,may be your reward. rcrihWV'tt.SriH-'ir'"'*