Reactions to an Influenza Virus Vaccine in Infants and Children

Effect of inactivation method on the cross-protective immunity induced by whole 'killed' influenza A viruses and commercial vaccine preparations

“…Live attenuated virus-based vaccines have been the most successful for a number of infectious diseases including polio, yellow fever, measles and smallpox (Plotkin et al, 2008). In regard to influenza, whole virus killed vaccines are associated with adverse reactions, especially in children, and consequently are little used (Quilligan et al, 1949;Salk, 1948). To reduce reactogenicity, most influenza vaccines used today are split-product vaccines or surface-antigen vaccines from chemically inactivated viruses, containing only purified haemagglutinin and neuraminidase, the outer surface proteins of influenza virus.…”

Preparation and immunogenicity of a purified influenza virus haemagglutinin and neuraminidase subunit vaccine

“…Inactivated influenza virus vaccines which contain intact virus particles may produce toxic reactions when inoculated parenterally into man (Salk, 1948;Quilligan, Francis and Minuse, 1949). This adverse toxicity can be abolished by disrupting the virus particles with ether or detergents, but such disrupted virus vaccines contain (in addition to the two surface antigens) internal components of the virus which, it is thought, play no role in the stimulation of neutralizing antibody and are therefore undesirable components of the vaccine.…”

The Politics of Medicine and the Global Governance of Pandemic Influenza

“…This view was arguably influenced to some extent by Andrewes and Charles Stuart-Harris, both of whom served on the United Kingdom's influenza vaccine committee (17). In 1953, when the WHO Expert Committee handed down its report, the United Kingdom's clinical trials program had only completed preliminary studies, and trials to assess the efficacy of influenza vaccines in the United States and other countries were providing mixed findings (18,19). As a result, there was insufficient clinical evidence to support a stronger recommendation on the role that vaccines might play in preventing influenza, and the WHO committee was thereby reluctant to advocate their widespread use.…”