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Oral Immunization to Colds¹

Department of Bacteriology and Hygiene of the University of Cincinnati Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, Indiana

Abstract

There were used 1036 persons in this experiment: 536 were used as controls and 500 were given oral cold vaccine during the school year 1933–1934. The vaccine was in capsules, each of which contained in the dry form 100 billion each of a rough pneumococcus, and a streptococcus. The vaccine was high in bile-resisting heterophile antigen.

Among the 500 treated cases, 38 had a history of continuous colds, while 425 had a history of one to eight colds per year per person. Among the 536 controls, 9 had a history of continuous colds, while 527 had a history of only one to eight colds per year per person.

Among the 47 patients who gave a history of continuous colds, the 38 who were given the oral cold vaccine had, for that year, only a total of 41 colds; thus passing from a stage of continual coryza to an average of 1.08 colds per person. While of the nine cases used as controls, only one reported a less severe type this year.

Among those who had a history for the past three years of one to eight colds per year per person, 462 patients having a yearly average total during the previous three years of 1400 colds or 3.03 colds per person per year, while taking the vaccine this year had a total of only 604 colds, or an average of 1.30 colds per person, e.g. 1.73 colds less per person, a decrease of 57 per cent. The 527 cases used as controls had a yearly average total, for the past three years, of 1314 colds, or 2.49 colds per person per year. During the school year 1933–1934 this group had a total of 1156 colds, or 2.19 colds per person, which is 0.30 cold less per person, or a decrease of 12 per cent.

The vaccinated group had a decrease of 57 per cent in the number of colds, whereas the controls had a decrease of 12 per cent. The essential decrease due to the oral cold vaccine is thus 45 per cent.

This work is being continued and the results will be reported at a later date. The relationship between the response of the individual to the heterophile antigen and his incidence of colds is given in a separate article.

Footnotes

¹ This work was made possible through a grant by the Eli Lilly and Company.