L’Immunite Dans Les Maladies A Virus

Abstract

SummaryIn our countries, most infants are born endowed with maternal antibodies against such diseases as measles, chicken-pox and mumps, with which their mother had been affected once; they also possess antibodies against such diseases as poliomyelitis and herpes simplex, towards which the mothers were immunized without their knowing it, as there were no obvious clinical symptoms.When 6 months old, and deprived of the maternal passive antibodies, the baby must rely on his own personal resistance against viruses. Does this resistance vary from one child to another, and is it influenced by hereditary factors? An American inquiry, which ought to be repeated, showed that, in some families, the chances to get paralytic poliomyelitis are abnormally great. In mice, some strains are highly resistant to one yellow fever virus; after crossing with mice of a sensible strain, resistance is transmitted to the offspring according to the Mendel laws, as a dominant character.The immunity provoked by a viral infection is ...