Schick reactions in recently confined women and their new-born infants

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Abstract
The Schick test was carried out on 500 recently confined women and their new-born infants. The Schick reaction was positive in as many as 73 % of the mothers and in 60 % of their infants. The infants were positive reactors in 82% of all the cases in which their mothers were positive.The reaction of the new-born infants was, as a rule, weaker than that of the mothers. It often happened that when the mother's reaction was faintly positive, her infant's reaction was negative.When the mothers had been immunized with diphtheria toxoid, the overwhelming majority of both the mothers and their new-born infants were negative. Immunization of Schick-positive women with diphtheria toxoid during pregnancy is recommended as a preventive of diphtheria in infancy, as by this means the antitoxin level of the new-born infant can be raised.We wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to Jörgen Lövset, M.D., chief physician, Hospital for Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Bergen, Norway, for permission to use the material for this investigation.

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