RUBELLA AND IMMUNOLOGIC RESPONSE

[摘要] As students of pediatrics continue to seize opportunities provided by disease in infants to learn more about human developmental biology, two common contagious exanthemata of childhood are now providing unique information on human immunologic function. The various manifestations of measles virus infections ["normal" measles, measles virus-induced giant cell pneumonia in leukemia, and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE)] were the basis of a recent lecture by Sir MacFarlane Burnet, in which he clearly confirmed the hypothesis that in man as in animals, thymus and gut derived immunocytes differ in function. He also offered the second hypothesis that SSPE is the result of non-responsiveness of the thymus-derived immunologic system induced by measles infection of the thymus and brain.

[学科分类] 儿科学