Communicability of enteric live adenovirus type 4 vaccine in families.

Abstract

Use of inactivated adenovirus vaccines prepared in monkey kidney tissue cultures was discontinued because of the inability to exclude, with certainty, genetic constituents of an unwanted simian virus (SV40) [1-3]. When adenovirus type 4 prepared in human diploid fibroblast tissue culture was shown to produce an asymptomatic intestinal infection, this method of vaccination was investigated [4]. The seroconversion rate from the induced enteric infection was higher than that from inactivated vaccine [5]. When given to recruits, enteric-coated live virus vaccine reduced specific acute respiratory disease (ARD) [6-9]. Mass administration of live virus vaccine during a period of epidemic disease promptly produced a sharp decrease in the number of persons hospitalized with ARD [10]. No adverse effects on the host were recognized. Most recipients of enteric live adenovirus excrete virus in the stool for several days sometime during the month after vaccination [11]. Among military recruits, no evidence was obtained for spread of the vaccine virus to the oropharynx of vaccinees or for transmission to non-vaccinated recruits [12]. In childless newlywed couples, however, transmissibility was observed without illness [13]. In these studies,