EVALUATION OF SABIN LIVE POLIOVIRUS VACCINE IN JAPAN I. GENERAL PREFACE

Abstract
The Japan Live Poliovaccine Research Commission in 1961 and 1962 confirmed that Sabin live oral poliovaccine has excellent immunogenicity and is quite safe. The vaccine employed in these studies was shown to have a minimal neurovirulence in monkeys as Sabin prescribed. No significant adverse clinical reactions were observed in vaccinees who were carefully observed. The vaccine viruses proliferated in the intestinal tract in a high percentage of vaccinees and a marked production of neutralizing antibodies against each of the 3 types of poliovrius was induced. Mass inoculation in the face of epidemic accomplished a dramatic decline of cases within a short period of time. Extremely rare cases with possible association with the vaccine were found among clinical cases occurring following the vaccination. In those cases the possibility of etiologic association of the vaccine virus could be neither denied nor confirmed. The use of the vaccine was found to be very convenient and practical from the view point of public health administration. Based on the results obtained by the 2-year activity of the commission and the subsequent studies on various aspects of the vaccination, a routine vaccination program with live oral poliovaccine as well as the surveillance system of poliomyelitis cases were established, and the data so far accumulated indicate that eradication of poliomyelitis from this country seems very promising.

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