Abstract
T HE prevention of infection constitutes one of the most serious problems associated with the care of prematurely born infants. These infants have few if any humoral antibodies except the small amounts that normally pass the placenta. Consequently, if human antibodies could be made available in concentrated form, they might provide a valuable adjunct to the treatment of such infants. Cohn, 0ncley, Strong, Hughes, and Armstrong, 1 in the course of their work on human plasma fractionation, have developed a gamma globulin fraction that was found by Enders ~ to contain a large number of humoral antibodies and was found by a number of other investigators 3-7 to be highly potent agent in the prophylaxis of measles. The question of the possible value of this gamma globulin fraction as a general prophylactic against infection in a nursery for premature infants immediately arose. In ' an attempt to shed light upon this possibility, we gave gamma globulin to alternate infants who were admitted to the nursery for premature infants ill the Gallinger Municipal Hospital from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1944. The purpose of the present paper is to present a summary of our findings in this study.
Published Version
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