OCR Text |
Show Kenny Foundation Sponsoring New Polio Oral Vaccine Tests Minneapolis-. Minn. The end of polio world wide is in sight but the final battle i list be fought, according to Marvin L. Kline, national na-tional cxecuti . : iliYcctor of the Sister Kenny foundation. A recent international conference in Washington, D.C., of outstanding out-standing polio scientists from 20 nations brought their combined wisdom wis-dom to bear on live virus polio vaccines which can be taken by mouth instead of injection and which, it is agreed, have many advantages over the killcd-yirus vaccine now in wide use in the United States The meeting was under the joint sponsorship of the Kenny foundation and the Pan American Health Organization of the World Health Organization. It was agreed that some problems in connection with the live virus vaccines must be worked out yet and a second international meeting is planned to assess further tests and trials with the product. Three different types of such vaccines, all developed in this country, already have been tried upon more than five million people in various countries of the world with seeming success. Control tests in the United States, Kline said, have been confined for the most part to the University of Minnesota under joint sponsorship of the Kenny foundation and the Minnesota State Department of Health. A 1958 test at the university led to mass tests that summer in Colombia and Nicaragua. In a 1959 test members of student families were fed all three strains of live polio virus in a single dose of cherry flavored liquid. Results of this still are being assessed. The live virus vaccine is weakened to the point where it protects without giving the disease by passage through a variety of tissue materials. It is much cheaper to produce than the killed virus vaccine and can be administered with greater ease. The vaccines are not licensed yet for use in the United States although several other nations now aie using them, Kline declared. The next year or so should give a definite answer for all countries. Meanwhile, Kline said, staff and facilities of the Kenny foundation founda-tion remain geared to deal with such polio outbreaks as may occur. Until the final battle is won, the fight against this dread crippling disease must continue with determined vigor, he added. |