The Key West Citizen

HEALTH OFFICIALS
(Continued from Page One)

cases were reported from Pocatello, Idaho, and one from Chicago.

Another suspected case was reported from Denver, where a 13-month-old child had been inoculated with vaccine supplied through commercial channels.

Officials said it normally takes 10 to 14 days after exposure for polio to develop, and emphasized it is possible that all the stricken children were developing the disease before they received their shots.

The Cutter vaccine was supplied for mass inoculations in parts of California and in Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Hawaii and Nevada. Much smaller shipments for commercial use were made to other areas of the country. All the Cutter-manufactured vaccine bears the company's name.

Inoculations Halted

The mass inoculations were halted immediately in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Idaho, but health officials in Nevada said they already had completed the giving of first shots and that no cases of polio had been reported among the children vaccinated.

Neighboring Utah, supplied by another firm, suspended its program "to clear the air and to allow time . . . to reassure people."

No polio cases were reported in Utah.

Philadelphia, supplied by still another firm, first ordered a halt in its own program but rescinded the order, and administration of the shots was to be resumed on schedule today.

The National Biologics Control Laboratory, the health service agency which checks the safety of vaccines and similar substances, sent two experts to California last night to help test the Cutter vaccines.

Tests Started

The California State Health Department's virus laboratories already have started a series of tests of the vaccine on animals, but officials said it would be several weeks before conclusive results of those tests could be expected.

Dr. Malcolm H. Merrill, state health director, said that even if the vaccine is found to be faulty, the finding may apply to only a few lots of the scores of batches which Cutter has produced.

Dr. Merrill offered this advice to parents of children who have received Cutter vaccine:

Let the youngsters continue their normal activities but observe the usual precautions taken during polio seasons—such steps as seeing to it the children avoid excessive fatigue and chilling, and that they get proper rest.

Dr. Merrill said it is not advisable at this time that the children be given gamma globulin or polio vaccine produced by some other laboratory.

A source which asked to remain unidentified said in Berkeley that suspicion had been directed against only four batches out of possibly 100 made by the Cutter Laboratories.

Dr. Robert K. Cutter, president of the laboratories, and Dr. Jonas E. Salk, who developed the vaccine, agreed that the action being taken was the safe thing to do.

A spokesman for the U. S. Public Health Service said here the Cutter vaccine had "measured up to minimum standards which we established for safety, purity and potency."