Measles Serum

Measles is generally considered a trivial disease. Yet 7,712 persons died in the U. S. during 1920 as a result of measles. The cause of the disease is unknown. It is particularly common and severe in schools, asylums, foundling homes. For years medical investigators have been attempting to find some method of protection, comparable to the protection now afforded for smallpox, typhoid, diphtheria. In 1916, C. Nicolle and E. Conseil of the Pasteur Institute in Tunis used the serum obtained from a patient convalescing from measles to secure protection against the disease. Last year F. von Torday collected the records of 2,000 cases in which the convalescent serum had been administered, and found that it failed to protect in less than 3%. Drs. George H. Weaver and T. T. Crooks have just reported the results of 63 tests made through the Durand Hospital of the John McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases in Chicago. It was found that chil- dren who have had measles, and babies during the first few months of life, do not readily contract the disease. Out of a group of 57 children, 48 were given the serum. Nine not given the serum who had been exposed to measles developed the disease. Of the 44 given the serum who were equally exposed as were the nine, only four developed measles.

Scarlet Fever Tests

Drs. George F. Dick and Gladys H. Dick of the John McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases, Chicago, have isolated a streptococcus* from a patient with scarlet fever with which they have been able to produce scarlet fever in two out of ten volunteers who asked for the innoculation. Now they have discovered that the fluid which may be filtered from growths of these bacteria apparently contains a toxin, and that it may be used for tests which will show whether or not a person is likely to become infected with scarlet fever on exposure to the disease. The test used is a specific skin test much like the Schick test that is used for testing immunity to diphtheria. Dr. W. Mair of London, who has spent many years on the study of scarlet fever, has been able to confirm the specific character of a test originally worked out by Schultz and Charlton in Germany. In that test a small amount of serum from a patient who is convalescing from scarlet fever is injected into the skin of a person who may be acutely ill with the disease. If the patient has scarlet fever the skin becomes pale at the spot. This is taken as an indication that the serum of patients recovering from scarlet fever contains antisubstances against the disease, and these act against the toxins causing the eruption and bring about the local blanching of the skin. In 1897, Weisbecker in Germany began the use of serum from convalescing patients in the treatment of scarlet fever. Its use in several thousands of cases has now established it as a standard form of treatment.

-- Streptococcus--a genus of micro-organisms which do not move but remain grouped in long chains, producing pus and causing pneumonia, erysipelas, etc.