Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory InvestigationsUniversity of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
History
Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations
University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
Influenza; Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919
About the same time that Leary was working on his vaccine, Rosenau
prepared an unheated suspension of Pfeiffer bacilli, isolated from cases
of influenza of the existing epidemic, which he used at the Chelsea
Naval Hospital and in an experiment at the Pelham Bay Naval Training
Station. The writer is indebted to Surgeon-General of the Navy W. C.
Braisted for the data from which this report was compiled—the report of
the Sanitary Officer of the station not having been completed at the
time the information was furnished. The vaccine experiment was made in
the isolation regiment, which had remained practically free of
influenza. Inoculations were begun on September 30, when 638 men were
given the first dose of vaccine, 833 men being held as controls. On
October 4 the second dose was given to 589 men, and vaccination was
completed on October 8, when 565 men were inoculated. This group
comprised the total number who received three inoculations. On October
14 practically all of these men were transferred, so that it was very
difficult to get a complete record. Those cases which developed
influenza prior to October 10 have been omitted by the writer, both from
the control and vaccinated groups, because it is unfair to consider the
incidence of influenza among controls which developed prior to the time
the inoculations were completed in the vaccinated group. Between October
10 and October 24 there were 27 cases of influenza which developed among
the vaccinated, and 30 among the controls, giving a morbidity rate of
3.6 per cent. among the 833 controls, as compared to 4.7 per cent. among
the 565 vaccinated men. Emphasis is laid on the fact that these
morbidity rates were calculated for both groups on the number of cases
that appeared after vaccination had been completed. The result failed to
show protective qualities in the vaccine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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