Concurrent infection with influenza virus and mumps virus or pneumonia virus of mice as bearing on the inhibition of virus multiplication by bacterial polysaccharides.

Preexisting infection with PVM or mumps virus does not prevent multiplication of the virus of influenza A or B in the same tissue. Similarly, pre-existing infection with one or another of the influenza viruses does not prevent multiplication of either PVM or mumps virus in the same tissue. The failure of these two groups of viruses to interfere with the multiplication of each other is discussed in relation to the mechanism of inhibition of multiplication of mumps virus and PVM by the capsular polysaccharides of Friedländer bacilli, and the ability of influenza A and influenza B viruses to multiply in the presence of large quantities of these carbohydrates. It is suggested that differences in the requirements of the two groups of viruses for host cell metabolic systems may serve to explain both the lack of interference between them and the differing effect of polysaccharides upon their multiplication.