Tests Prove Success Of Enders Measles Vaccine

The vaccine against measles developed by John F. Enders, Nobel Prize winning professor of Bacteriology and Immunology, has been proved effective for 96 per cent of the children inoculated, according to a report made last week by the United States Public Health Service.

Preparation are now being made for the manufacture of the vaccine for general use.

Measles, the most common childhood disease in the United States, is dreaded especially because of its complications. Leaving victims highly susceptible to infections of any kind, it may lead to pneumonia, to tuberculosis or to encephalitis, a fatal disease of the brain and spinal column.

In underdeveloped, tropical countries, where hygiene is poor and public health measures minimal, measles and its complications are fatal in 10 per cent of the cases.

Dr. Enders said that the most important work of his laboratory was the discovery of how to grow measle viruses in tissue culture. It was the comparable discovery of how to grow polio viruses in test tubes that led the way to the development of the polio vaccine and to a Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for Dr. Enders.

Actually, two types of vaccines against measles have been developed so far. Dr. Enders's laboratory has worked on the production of a vaccine using live, attenuated viruses, because live viruses tend to give a more lasting immunity than dead ones. Work is also being done, however, with a vaccine containing dead viruses.

The live virus vaccine has proved to be more effective in the tests conducted recently by the University of Pennsylvania However, various side effects have accompanied inoculation.

In many children, the vaccine causes something like a mild case of measles. A rash similar to measles has been noted, but more alarming a first was the frequent occurrence of a fever.

Doctors were relieved when they noticed that the children suffering from these high fevers did not seem at all sick, and did not have to stay in bed.