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Statistical Studies in Immunity. Natural Immunity and the Capacity for acquiring Immunity in the Acute Infectious Diseases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

John Brownlee
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The subject-matter of this paper is a study of the relationship which exists between the natural immunity enjoyed by an individual to any disease, and the capacity which he possesses of acquiring immunity if attacked. Most of the facts discussed are moderately well known. They are furnished by the statistics of the acute infectious diseases which have accumulated since the middle of last century. These statistics are in many respects very defective for the purpose required, but they refer to very considerable numbers of cases, and thus afford a basis for the estimation of different degrees of immunity with some accuracy. The most numerous collection of statistics relates to small-pox among the vaccinated and unvaccinated. These have been dealt with in an earlier paper1, and the results alone will be referred to here. This group of statistics unfortunately practically exhausts the whole data concerning acquired immunity. The next statistics of importance are those referring to the different outbreaks of typhus, relapsing, and enteric fever, and of a few other less common diseases. Last must be placed those regarding the diseases which chiefly affect children. These for several reasons, however, afford less definite data.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , October 1905 , pp. 514 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1905

References

1 Biometrika, Vol. IV.Google Scholar

1 In explanation of table for instance the 3 marked by an asterisk indicates that in three years the amount of diphtheria was between 100 and 200 per 100,000 of population, and the fatality, i.e. the case mortality, between 21 and 24%.

1 These tables have not been corrected for age differences. In the case of scarlet fever and small-pox in Glasgow the correction was found to be negligible.

1 The same low fatality in September and October is seen also in the statistics of London, vide Reports by Sir Shirley Murphy.

1 Rayer, , Suette Miliare en 1821. Paris, 1822.Google Scholar

1 These remarks concerning the comparative immunity to scarlet fever possessed by persons over ten years of age apply generally to the manner in which that disease appears in the cities of this country, yet when an epidemic attacks a virgin community the period of high susceptibility dose not cease till the age of twenty is reached. This is shown in the epidemic of scarlatina which broke out in the Faroe Islands in 1875, and it raises the question as to whether some degree of immunity may not be obtained by living in a centre where the infection is constantly present, even although an actual attack of the disease is not experienced; this however cannot be dealt with here.