IMMUNIZATION OF NEWBORN CHILDREN WITH LIVING ORAL TRIVALENT POLIOVIRUS VACCINE

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Abstract
The serological response to one dose of living oral trivalent poliovirus vaccine was compared in two groups of children, 49 vaccinated at birth and 44 vaccinated at the age of 4 months. Of those vaccinated at birth, 44 (90%) responded to the vaccine strains of type 1 and type 3 and 30 (61%) to the type 2 strain. Of those vaccinated at 4 months of age; 64% responded to type 1, 52% to type 2, and 82% to type 3. The difference between the responses of the two groups, which for type 1 is significant, may result from the interference of other enteric viruses in the 4-month-old children. A second dose of vaccine, administered to the children vaccinated at birth when they reached the age of 4 months, increased the overall immunological response to 100% for types 1 and 3 and 96% for type 2, and showed that no immunological tolerance had been developed. The vaccine produced no undesirable effect in any of the children, and no paralytic poliomyelitis occurred among them. The observation of other investigators, that a high titer of maternal antibody inhibits immunological response to vaccination, was confirmed, but breast feeding apparently had no unfavorable effect on response.