The Agglutinative Reaction in Relation to Pertussis and to Prophylactic Vaccination against Pertussis with Description of a New Technic

[摘要] A new technic of tube-agglutination for H. pertussis is described. Mechanical rocking of the tubes for two hours at room temperature suffices. Twenty-four hour growth of H. pertussis is used. The small amount of serum required (0.1 cc.) may be obtained by the use of ear- or toe-puncture and collection in a Lyon's tube.The sera from 10 of 101 children with negative histories for pertussis produced agglutination, but under the age of 5 years the agglutinative titers in the positive sera were not higher than 1:20.The sera from 161 of 164 children who had been injected with phase I H. pertussis vaccine produced agglutination. The titers of the positive sera were in general high, usually 1:160 or higher. Second and occasionally third specimens of serum obtained at wide intervals up to 38 months after vaccination showed a tendency to maintenance of titer.The sera from 15 of 17 children with pertussis produced agglutination at some time during the disease. The titer of agglutination attained was extremely variable and seldom over 1:160.The sera from 36 of 67 children who had recently recovered from pertussis produced agglutination. On retesting after intervals of several months consistent decreases in titer were observed. Many sera had become negative though occasional sera produced agglutination up to 25 months after the onset of the disease.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）