smallpox vaccine and vaccination in the intensified ... - libdoc.who.int

11. VACCINATION IN THE INTENSIFIED PROGRAMME
Table 1 1.3. WHO survey, 1967: vaccinifer or medium used for vaccine production
Contlnent
Number of producers
reporting
Calf Sheep Water-buffalo Chlck embryo Tissue culture
Africa 8 4 3 I - -
Americas 13 10 - - 3 -
Asla and Oceanla 16 7 4 5 - -
Europe 22 18' P - - 3a
Total 59 39a IZa 6 3 V
a One laboratory employed both calves and sheep as vaccinifers as well as cultured bovlne embryo flbroblasts, whlle 2 employed calves and
bovine embryo flbroblasts.
Table 1 1.4. WHO survey, 1967: strains of vaccinia virus used for vaccine production
Contlnent
Africa
Americas
Asia and Oceania
Europe
Strain used
Number of producers Lister New York Clty
Board of Health Paris Bern Othera Unknown
reporting
Total 59 23 7 7 3 13 6
a Includes the following strains: Aorta, Bohemia, Bordeaux, Chambon, Hamburg, Ikeda, Massachusetts 999, Vienna.
and 3 in tissue culture (bovine embryo fibro-
blasts). These results confirmed that smallpox
vaccine of animal skin origin was by far the
most extensively used throughout the world,
in both developed and developing countries
(Table 1 1.3).
Lyophilization equipment used in the dif-
ferent laboratories had been produced by at
least 11 different manufacturers-in Czecho-
slovakia, France, the German Democratic
Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany,
Japan, the United Kingdom and the USA.
Strains of Vaccinia Virus
Many different strains of vaccinia virus
were in use for vaccine production, although
it is probable that some of these had a
common ancestry. Of the 59 laboratories that
responded, 23 employed the Lister strain, 7
the New York City Board of Health strain,
and 7 the Paris strain. The remaining 22
laboratories used a number of different
strains, none of which was used by more than
3 laboratories (Table 11.4). Furthermore, it
was doubtful whether all the strains were
correctly described. For example, in a labora-
tory in Africa it was found that the strain used
was a mixture of vaccinia and cowpox viruses.
Moreover, the different passage histories of
what were nominally the same strains of
vaccinia virus undoubtedly resulted in sub-
stantial differences in their biological
properties.
Number of Doses per Container
In most countries there was, in general,
little communication between those produc-
ing vaccine and those administering it in the
field. Government laboratories were called on
to produce a specified number of doses of
smallpox vaccine each year, and the producers
found it much less expensive to dry the
vaccine in large ampoules. Likewise, commer-
cial producers, who sold vaccine by the dose,
preferred to package it in large containers.
Few producers understood the logistic