IMMUNIZATION AGAINST PERTUSSIS

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Abstract
The prevention of pertussis is today one of the main problems of the pediatrician and school physician. Isolation of the patient as a means of preventing the spread of this disease has in general been ineffective. The nonspecific character of the cough during the catarrhal stage—which Lawson1has shown is the most infective period—makes early diagnosis virtually impossible. The cough plate is the only means of making an early diagnosis. By it atypical cases are also discovered. There are many of the latter, as the more general use of cough plates now indicates. Valuable as this procedure is, it is obviously impracticable to take plates of all children and adults with coughs. A decreased morbidity and mortality from pertussis— which now is responsible for more deaths than any other epidemic disease with the exception of influenza— can be expected only when a potent immunizing agent is obtained. Evidence on

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