The efficiency of a diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis vaccine in inducing a serological response after a three-dose primary course of immunization was tested in thirty-nine children aged 5 and 6 years and found to be satisfactory. This vaccine had previously been shown to be suitable for use as a single dose reinforcing vaccine for children of this age who had been immunized in infancy. It is suggested that all children might receive one dose of the vaccine at the time they enter school, and then those who have not been immunized before should receive a further two suitably spaced doses to complete their course of primary immunization.

Vaccination with a rough variant of Salmonella dublin had no observable harmful effect on guinea-pigs. It conferred a good immunity against S. typhimurium and S. choleraesuis var kunzendorf infections.

Quadruple vaccine containing 75 D antigen units of killed type 1 poliovirus was given to children at ages 2, 3 and 4 months followed by a booster dose at 15 months.

The serological response to the primary course was difficult to assess owing to maternal antibody. Antibody titres to the type 1 component after the booster dose were very satisfactory and about 10 times higher than those observed in a similar group of children given attenuated vaccine. Response to the poliovirus types 2 and 3 in the quadruple vaccine was less satisfactory.

Graded doses of attenuated poliovirus type 1 were fed to the children 2 months after the primary course and 1 month after the booster dose. Children who had received no poliovaccine and children immunized with attenuated vaccine were included for comparison.

Immunization with killed vaccine did not greatly affect the size of the minimal infecting dose of live virus but reduced both the duration of the subsequent infection and the titre of virus in the faeces.

The epidemiological significance of these findings is discussed.

1. A small but serious outbreak of Ps. aeruginosa infection in a premature baby ward has been described.

2. Heavy contamination of the suction apparatus and tubing was demonstrated to be the main reservoir of infection.

3. It was also shown that this apparatus could disseminate the organism as an aerosol.

4. The measures adopted to eliminate the source and prevent dissemination of the infectious agent have been described.

Five healthy young women swam in untreated water of known bacterial quality under a variety of hygienic conditions. Evidence based on bacteriological examination of water samples leads to the following conclusions:

1. There is a marked variation in the number and types of bacteria shed by a bather while swimming and the variations do not seem to be correlated to the differences in personal hygiene or the menstrual period.

2. Faecal organisms may be discharged in considerable numbers by a swimmer after a thorough and careful shower with soap and warm water and yet not be discharged in appreciable numbers by a bather who does not take a shower before swimming.

3. Faecal organisms constitute only a small minority of the total number of viable bacteria that are discharged in swimming pool water by a bather during the act of swimming and as such seem to have limited use as indicators of total bacterial pollution.

4. Members of the genus Staphylococcus are shed in large numbers under all conditions and Staph. aureus is consistently present. Therefore, this genus appears to be a good choice as an index for the determination of body contamination.

5. Further studies are indicated under more stringently controlled hygienic conditions to determine the value of hexachlorophene in reducing microbial flora that a given individual may shed during swimming.

A method of secondary enrichment is described suitable for the isolation of a wide range of salmonella serotypes from abattoir swabs and polluted river water. The technique does not employ selectively toxic chemicals.

The twenty-four young women and one man treated in an ultra-clean isolation ward should have had a low incidence of staphylococcal infection on grounds of age, sex and clean environment alone. However, they apparently acquired new strains of Staph. aureus at the rate of 4·7/100 patient weeks (3·9 multiple resistant strains/100 patient weeks) from the sixth week after admission onwards.

Environmental factors contributing to infection included introduction of resistant strains by the patients on admission, contact between patients in the unit, and failure to eliminate nasal carriage in staff and patients.

Host susceptibility was increased by malignancy, and by antibiotic and cytotoxic therapy. The nasal carriage rate of Staph. aureus was significantly greater for patients with repeated episodes of leucopenia induced by cytotoxic drugs.

A method of doing viable counts of Cl. welchii has been described that gives reproducible results from faeces. By this method counts were carried out on the faeces of persons in the general population, and those associated with an outbreak of food poisoning due to Cl. welchii. There was a significant increase in viable count in those with symptoms of food poisoning. Owing to many variables, single viable counts do not appear to be useful in the laboratory diagnosis of food poisoning, but the detection of heat-resistant spores, by direct culture after boiling, may be of some use. More work must be carried out to substantiate this point.

Parallel titrations of a strain of trachoma (MRC–221) and one of inclusion conjunctivitis (MRC–4) in the baboon conjunctiva and in chick embryos suggest that ten to twenty 50% egg infective doses are equivalent to one 50% baboon infective dose; but that at least 1000 egg infective doses are needed to induce moderate or severe infections in all of a given number of baboons.

For vaccine experiments in baboons, a system of scoring physical signs and presence of inclusion bodies was devised; the significance of differences in vaccinated and control animals in their response to conjunctival challenge was determined by analysis of variance. An aqueous suspension of live MRC–4 grown in the yolk sac was given as two subcutaneous doses and one intravenous dose at weekly intervals, and protected all of six baboons challenged with the homologous strain; three similarly spaced subcutaneous doses were less effective. The immunity induced by this vaccine waned considerably during the ensuing 15 months. Vaccine prepared from a live ‘fast-killing’ variant of MRC–4 grown in HeLa cells was less effective than MRC–4 itself in protecting baboons against infection with the parent strain.

Although both yolk sac and HeLa cell vaccines induced the formation of antibody fixing complement with trachoma group antigen, the serum titres in individual animals at the time of challenge were unrelated to the degree of protection; during a 15 month observation period there were pronounced falls in the titres of antibody induced either by vaccination or by challenge with egg-grown TRIC agent.

We wish to thank Dr I. Sutherland (M.R.C. Statistical Research Unit) for his helpful advice during the early stages of this work. We are also greatly indebted to Mr P. Avis (Pfizer Ltd.) for his advice and for undertaking the statistical computations; and to Miss Anne Smith and Miss Pay Storey (M.R.C. Trachoma Research Unit) for doing the complement fixation tests.

1. Features in the epidemiology of a spontaneous enteric gangrene in the Highlands of New Guinea are described.

2. The disease has been called pig-bel because of its firm association with the pig-feasting practices of the people, which occur in 3–7 year cycles.

3. Cl. welchii type C is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of the condition. Strains isolated were strongly toxigenic and uniform in their toxin production.

4. A food poisoning aetiology was not proved but circumstantial and immunological evidence suggest that pork may be a vector of the disease.

5. The source of Cl. welchii type C was not established.

A mineral oil adjuvant failed to enhance or to prolong the somewhat shortlived immunity induced in baboons by trachoma/inclusion conjunctivitis (TRIC) vaccines, and was of little or no value in increasing or prolonging the formation of group complement-fixing (CF) antibody. Vaccines prepared with protamine sulphate or with calcium phosphate were no more immunogenic than the untreated parent suspensions.

Cross tests with aqueous vaccines revealed antigenic differences in the TRIC agents examined, in terms of their ability to protect against conjunctival challenge. Strain MRC–1/OT differed from MRC–17 and from MRC–4, and MRC–187 from MRC–4f.

The four Gambian trachoma agents tested were much less effective than the MRC–4 strain of inclusion conjunctivitis in inducing group CF antibody in baboons. The titre of circulating antibody bore no relation to the state of immunity to conjunctival challenge.

In three baboons given mineral oil adjuvant vaccine and in one given aqueous vaccine the conjunctival responses to subsequent challenge were significantly enhanced. This reaction may be an expression of a hypersensitive state induced by relatively ineffective vaccines; like immunity, it is unrelated to the titre of CF antibody in the serum.