The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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August. 1927 The Health Bulletin 19
VACCINATION OF CHILDREN AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS
We are fortunate in being able to
publish in this issue a short article
very carefully prepared, especially for
publication in the Bulletin, by Dr.
P. P. McCain, superintendent of the
State Sanatorium, on the subject of
Calmette Vaccine Against Tuberculosis.
Immediately following the
article by Dr. McCain we are publishing,
through special permission from
the editor, a Paris communication to
the New York Times on the same
subject. This is a matter of peculiar
interest to physicians and health
officers, and we hope that both articles
will be carefully read.
The world has been expectantly
awaiting a long time for a spectacular
treatment or cure for tuberculous
patients. It may be that this French
physician is following the most successful
lead toward eventual control
and eradication of tuberculosis.
Naturally there is no sensation and
no spectacular results immediately
forthcoming if the Calmette vaccine
is finally proved efficacious and becomes
commonly used as is toxinantitoxin,
say, for the prevention of
diphtheria. The reason that it will
not be sensational is because the
treatment is proposed for children
that have been peculiarly exposed to
tuberculosis, and the proof, pro and
con, must await the passage of many
years' time. /
/
r "^
THE CALMETTE VACCINE AGAINST
TUBERCULOSIS
By P. P. McCAIN, M.D., Superintendent State Sanatorium for
Treatment of Tuberculosis.
/Dr. A. Calmette of the Pasteur
Institute in France has developed a
vaccine which he thinks will immunize
infants against tuberculosis. His vaccine
consists of an emulsion of live
tubercle bacilli of very low virulence
grown upon a culture-medium of oxbile
mixed with glycerine. Calmette
claims that through repeated cultures
over a long period of time he has developed
a race of tubercle bacilli
which have lost all of their original
power to produce tuberculosis, but
which have the property of stimulating
the body cells of infants to
form anti-bodies or fighting elements
which protect them against tuberculosis.
Calmette began using his vaccine
in infants in 1921. Since that time
he and a number of other physicians
in Europe have used the vaccine in
several thousand children. He claims
that their results show that the vaccine
protect
, infants against
.J
tuberculosis in 99 per cent, of cases
for a period of three years or longer.^
While authorities generally recognize
Dr. Calmette as one of the foremost
workers in tuberculosis they are
somewhat doubtful as to the value of
his vaccine. Research workers in
this country are not entirely satisfied
that the vaccine is entirely harmless.
It is given in three doses at 48-hour
intervals, each dose containing four
hundred million live tubercle bacilli.
The Research Committee of the National
Tuberculosis Association which
is giving more intense scientific
study to the subject of tuberculosis
than any other organization of the
world, is greatly interested in the
Calmette vaccine, but before they are
willing to recommend it for infants
they are going to try it out on animals,
both to test its value as an
immunizing agent against tuberculosis
and to make sure that it will
not have anv harmful effects. This