Skin Reactivity of Mothers and Infants to Staphylococcus Aureus Filtrate and Vaccine.

Abstract

The negative response to the Dick and Schick tests in the new born and young infant gave rise to the supposition that neutralizing antibodies were present. These antibodies were considered to be of transplacental origin at birth, and then later might be obtained from the breast milk. Further clinical support is found in the apparent lack of diphtheria, scarlet fever, or other infectious diseases in early infancy. However, the Dick and Schick tests are often negative in the newborn although their mothers may be definitely positive (Cooke, 1 Ruh and McClelland 2 ). Furthermore, the blood serum of the young infant also lacks the antitoxins that might neutralize the toxin of the scarlet fever streptococcus (Cooke 1 ) or the diphtheria bacillus (Von Göer and Kassowitz, 3 Friedberger, Bock and Fürstenheim 4 ). These antitoxins are usually found in the serum of adults who are negative to the Dick and Schick tests. In addition to the skin tests it has likewise been reported that the skin at this age responds neither to the filtrates from other specific organisms nor to certain non-specific antigens and eczematogenous irritants (Tschertkow, 5 Adelsberger, 6 Friedberger and Heim 7 ).

There is still, however, a lack of study of skin response to antigens prepared from organisms to which the newborn and young infants are clinically very susceptible. This communication is limited to a report of the skin reactions after intradermal injections of Staphylococcus aureus filtrate and vaccine in mothers and their babies, as well as in older infants. This organism has been shown by Falls 8 and other investigators to cause pemphigus and impetigo in the newborn. The filtrate was prepared according to the method of Pilot and Afremow 9 and the organisms were obtained from boils, abscesses, puerperal sepsis, pemphigus, and impetigo.