RESISTANCE TO POLIOMYELITIS

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Abstract
The various factors which collectively determine resistance or susceptibility to a communicable disease are so numerous and diverse that any attempt to disentangle the complex phenomena associated with the production of disease must of necessity be beset with the greatest technical difficulties. The occurrence of infection obviously is dependent on a delicate balance between the virulence of the invading micro-organism and the receptivity of the host. The relative significance, however, of exogenous and endogenous factors varies enormously among the infectious diseases. With high virulence of the etiologic agent, differences in individual predisposition of the host will frequently be obscured; a low innate susceptibility to a disease, on the other hand, may virtually obliterate the infectious character of its incitant. A rational analysis of resistance or susceptibility must, therefore, allocate in each instance proportionally a greater or lesser importance to specific immunologic and nonspecific physiologic factors. While in a large number,

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