1 The Jack & Heintz Laboratory Department of Contagious Diseases, City Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.
2 The Department of Pediatrics, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
With the use of a purified tannic acid-precipitated erythrogenic streptococcus toxin prepared according to the method of Veldee and given intradermally in three doses of 750, 3,000, and 10,000 STD at weekly intervals, 362 Dick positive individuals, including student nurses and inmates of orphanages, were inoculated. This resulted in a reversal of the Dick reaction in 86.7% of the group.
The majority of those immune to one STD were negative also to 2
and 5 STD for at least six months, and only a few reversed to Dick positive within a year.
None of the immunized who remained Dick negative developed scarlet fever within the one to one and one-half year observation period.
Two cases of scarlet fever were observed in those immunized, but they had reverted from negative to positive Dick reactions prior to contracting the disease.
Some practical and theoretical considerations regarding scarlet fever immunization are discussed.
Submitted on October 22, 1947