Montgomery County Sentinel

Anti-Polio Vaccine Use OK'd Here Health Department Will Supply Gamma Globulin If Asked

Gamma globulin - the "polio vaccine"-will be made available to physicians who want to use it on patients exposed to the summer terror.
The State department of health said this week that local health officers will distribute the vaccine to physicians who ask for it.
At the same time, the department cautioned that gamma globulins effects still are not conclusive.
"No present evidence exists," the department noted, "from the 1953 tests . . . that gamma globulin is of value in the prevention or modification of polio myelitis."
The health board's opinion was based partly, it reported, on a summary report in the Journal of the American Medical Association last month.
Because of the "division of opinion," however, the department went on, it will supply gamma globulin to physicians who want it after consultation with local health officers.
Dr. Robert H. Riley, health department director, said gamma globulin also will be available for prevention and modification of measles and infectious hepatitis—"two conditions where the effectiveness of gamma globulin has been clearly demonstrated."
Revelation of the turnabout in its off-again, on-again plans for the use of gamma globulin were made undramatically and briefly in the health department's monthly bulletin, released this week.