An evaluation of convalescent serum in the prevention of mumps

Abstract

Summary An experience with convalescent mumps serum is presented, in which there were eleven failures to prevent the disease after treating eighty-six exposed susceptible persons. Six of the failures occurred in children who had been re-exposed to the disease after having attained an apparent immunity to the first exposure. While this is too small a group of cases from which to draw many conclusions, it may add to the experience of others in evaluating this form of therapy. These data indicate that 10 c.c. of convalescent mumps serum gives a passive immunity of very short duration in a high percentage of cases, and that it seems necessary to repeat the injection of serum after each exposure to the disease. Our experience suggests that previous reports on this subject have been too encouraging and that, while serum is of definite value, it should not be depended upon too strongly for the control of institutional epidemics.