LIVE POLIO IRUS VACCINES

24. A SMALL-SCALE TRIAL WITH LIVE POLIOMYELITIS VACCINE
IN AN ISOLATED ISLAND COMMUNITY
N. OKER-BLOM, HELENA STRANDSTROM, AND A. W. ERIKSSON
Department of Virology, University of Helsinki, Finland
Dr. OKER-BLOM (presenting the paper): After
several days of listening to the results of largescale
trials and mass vaccinations with all the
three types of live attenuated poliovirus strains,
one wonders whether it is at all worthwhile to
present the results of a trial including only 200
persons.
However, some preliminary data concerning
the 1958 Sottunga trial were presented here last
year, and as the trials have now been extended
and finished, it may be justifiable to give the
final results of these trials now, although these
may probably be merely of academic interest.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Selection of Study Population
The region chosen for the trial was the fairly
isolated Sottunga Island in the middle of the
Aland Archipelago (Fig. 1), which lies west of
the Finnish mainland and east of Sweden, with
the gulf of Botnia to the. north and the Baltic
sea to the south.
The whole Aland Archipelago has a population
of 21,000 persons. Sottunga Island has a
registered population of only 253 persons and
FIG. 1
533