VACCINATION AGAINST WHOOPING COUGH

From the literature on pertussis vaccination it is difficult to attain an unbiased opinion as to the value of this prophylactic measure. On the one hand there are authors, like Sauer 1 and Silverthorne, who report excellent results; on the other hand there are those who have only negative or doubtful effects to report (Doull 2 ). Table 1, taken from a recent publication by Toomey, 3 is a survey of different publications on this subject. All these reports have the same problem to face, which some authors try to solve, others not, namely the rate of exposure to infection after vaccination. In a community where whooping cough is always existent and flares up periodically, the rate of exposure among a great number of children must necessarily be difficult to grasp numerically. If the children are vaccinated between epidemics, months and years may pass before they are exposed to infection, and