NEUTRALIZATION TESTS IN POLIOMYELITIS. SERA TAKEN DURING THE ACUTE AND CONVALESCENT STAGES OF THE DISEASE AND TESTED WITH A PASSAGE VIRUS AND A STRAIN ISOLATED DURING THE 1935 NEW YORK CITY OUTBREAK 1

Abstract

It has been assumed that recovery from poliomyelitis usually results in the development of humoral antibodies as in other infectious diseases. During the New York City outbreak of 1935 tests were made on a large number of sera taken from patients at intervals during the acute stage and as late as 16 months after the onset. 14 out of 82 paralytic cases and 18 out of 32 non-paralytic cases had neutralizing substances in the blood serum during the 1st week of the disease. 2 of the paralytics possessed neutralizing substances in the preparalytic stage. Since these antibodies were found so early in the course of the tests and since those lacking neutralizing bodies fail to develop them readily in convalescence, they may have been present prior to the onset of the infection. These data indicate that paralysis can develop in the presence of neutralizing antibodies in the serum. The majority of both paralytic and non-paralytic patients whose sera lacked neutralizing substances at the onset failed to develop them as shown by tests made up to 16 months after the onset. The inability of the majority of convalescents to develop neutralizing substances was demonstrated both with the passage strain and a strain of virus isolated in the same outbreak. These studies showed that there was no definite relationship between the presence of protective substances in the serum and (1) resistance to poliomyelitis, (2) the diagnosis of the non-paralytic form of the disease, and (3) the degree of recovery from paralysis.