IMMUNIZATION AGAINST VIRAL DISEASES.

Means are now at hand, if properly employed, to virtually eliminate clinical poliomyelitis and measles from this country. If such control is to be accomplished, more effective means are required to reach virtually all of the four million infants born each year in this country. Influenza can be suppressed, and improvements in influenza vaccine have been achieved in recent years. It seems likely at this time that at least several of the more important viral diseases can be controlled by utilizing antigens based on the biologic characteristics of the agent, and directed toward the reservoir of infection and the conditions favoring transmission of the infection. The theoretical problem of the effects in man of viruses that are oncogenic in rodents and are derived from various tissue culture systems deserves serious attention. However, this consideration, that of antigenic potency, and other problems reviewed should not be allowed to subvert efforts to solve the real problems that face us, the disability and death resulting from these common infections.