MODIFYING MEASLES

Shannon News, 29 June 1926, Page 1

MODIFYING MEASLES

NEW TUEATMENT ADOI’TED.

The blood serum of adults who had measles in childhood may be used to modify the disease in child, ren so that it will take only a mild form, devoid of serious after effects, and yet will give immunity for life just as th e normal form of the disease does, states “Science Service" correspondent. This is the conclusion of Professor R. Debre and Dr. Joannon, of the University of Paris Medical School, reported to the Health Committee of the League of Nations. More than 1000 injections of the serum have been made without any bad effects. The efforts of Dr. Lon Bernard, of the University of Paris, resulted in the establishment of two prophylac. tic stations in Paris for the treatment of the disease.

“Up to the present, time,” Dr. Bernard said, “prophylactic methods have been used to some extent in th e United States >and Germany to secure temporary immunity. A serum from convalescent cases was used and injected in patients during the first six days after infection. "But a durable immuftity may be developed if the serum is not injected until the germs have had more time to incubate, as in the modified procedure of Professor Debre, where the injections are made only between , the sixth and tenth day after infection. A serum shortage problem was solved by the discovery tthat the serum of adults who have long since recovered from measles was as efficient as thai taken fro mccnvalescent children.” It is often forgotten, Dr. Bernard said, that measles is a serious disease, and there is no other disease to which man is ] so universally sus. ceptible. Every year there are thousands'of deaths in France alone, and statistics from the most important countries show that the death rate from measles is falling more slowly than that of diphtheria, small-pox, scarlet fever and whooping cough. 1 ,

Measles caused about a million deaths in Europe between 1900 and 1910, and in the death registration area of the United States from 1901 to 1920 there were more than 100,000 deaths. Measles is more dangerous in cities than in the country, and in Europe at any rate the danger is directly proportioned to the density of the population, Dr. Bernard said.

Although as old as medical his. tory, and so common that in cities over 90 per cent, of the population have had the disease by the age of eighteen, meas’es is still one of the mystery diseases which it • has been extremely difficult to combat. It is believed to be caused by an extremely small organism which cannot be seen with the ordinary microscope, and Which passes through a filter which stops ordinary germs. With the possible exception ot small.pox, it is the most contagious disease known to man, and, according to the 1 'nited States Public Health Service, it is difficult to control because tl:c symptoms of the disease are not obvious until about four days after infection. ‘‘The importance of measles is fre. quently under-estimated,” said Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, chairman of the division of medical science of the National Research Council, and one of America’s leading epidemiologists, “and it has been commonly believed that the disease acts as a weeding, out process to eliminate the unfit at a very early age, and does no harm to the strong. On the contrary, a study of measles in the United States army camps during the World War revealed that a person who has recently hadi measles is ten times more likely to die from pneumonia than one who hasj not. “It is not over-sanguine to claim,” Dr. Vaughan continued, "that if this disease, together with whooping cough, diphthei ia and scarlet fever, could be entirely suppressed the average length of life would be in. creased by at least ten years.”