Skin Tests for Sensitivity to Virus of Poliomyelitis

Abstract

Early investigators 1 , 2 denied that the convalescent state in monkeys recovering from poliomyelitis was accompanied by cutaneous hyper-sensitiveness. Aycock 3 has stated that he has been unable to detect skin hypersensitiveness to monkey passage virus in human convalescents. Both Aycock and Kagan 4 and Stewart and Rhoads 5 while actively immunizing monkeys by the intracutaneous method, failed to note cutaneous allergic reactions. Recently, Jungeblut 6 has found that while cutaneous reactions of hypersensitiveness are lacking in convalescent monkeys, there is a high degree of generalized hypersensitiveness in these animals as judged by the occurrence of an immediate thermic response to the introduction of virus either intracerebrally or subcutaneously. Such a response was lacking in animals that had been uninfected. According to this author 7 the reverse situation obtains in man, as he observed a definite specific cutaneous reaction to an emulsion of virus-bearing monkey spinal cord in each of 27 human individuals with residual paralysis due to poliomyelitis. Sabin 8 has failed to find evidence of an allergic skin reaction in normal adults or in human convalescents either recent or of long standing, when tested with fresh heat inactivated preparations of monkey virus, human virus and normal monkey cord.

Since one of us (J. A. H.) had prepared a concentrated and purified virus from which a large share of proteins, phospholipins and lecithins had been eliminated, we decided to test the cutaneous reactions of poliomyelitis convalescents with this product. Using a similarly prepared concentrate of normal monkey spinal cord as a control, we have carried out intradermal injections upon 17 children having residual paralysis from poliomyelitis.

That none of these preparations contained viable virus was demonstrated by intracerebral injection of 1.0 cc. of both the concentrated ant1 uncorlcentrated virus into unused Macacus rlzesus monkeys by the intracerebral method.