Jackson County journal. (Sylva, N.C.) 19??-19??, 1918-01-18

Medium Typhoid Parayphoid


The laboratory at Uncle Sans Army
Medical school in Washington, work
ing at top speed, has prepared and
shipped enough typhoid and paratyp-
phoid vaccine to inoculate every man
in the army against these diseases and
in addition it has made all the vac
cines used by the navy since April 1,
1917. At the time the first contingents
of the National army were being mo-
bilized in the various environments, the
army school was turning out 5000
quarts of typhoid vaccine month.
The cost of this monthly output in ma
terial alone, not to mention labor,
equipment and overhead expense, was
$15O,OOO. Its commercial value was
five' or six times that amount.
Throughout the process of making,
the vaccine is closely guarded against
contamination. It is then stored in
sealed vessels in locked refrigerators,
to which only the two officers in
charge have'keys; and none of these
vessels is ever moved except in the
company of one of these two officers
Col. Eugene R. Whitmore, in charge
of the laboratory, and his assistant,
Maj. G. G. Snow. In more than six
months of large-scaIe production not
trace has been found of any contain
ination.
The United States army uses the
"Rawlings' strain of the typhoid bacil-
lus, isolated by the British army from
a case of typhoid at Netley, England,
IN 1900. The stock from which the
typhoid vaccine is made is composed
of lineal descendants of these germs
isolated II years ago and propagated
In artificial media ever since. The par
atyphoid vaccines are combination
of four strains, two American and two
British.
The Process Of Cultivation.
First the ''stock cultures" from
which the bacilli for the vaccine are
to be propagated, are tested. If, for
example, typhoid vaccine is to be
made, germs are taken from the stock,
allowed to propagate, and tested by
several methods to determine, first.
whether they are pure strain of ty-
phoid bacillus and nothing else, and,
second, that they are affected in the
desired way by blood previously in
oculated against typhoid, showing that
this particular strain of typhoid bacil-
lus is neither too strong nor too weak.
The next steps in the process, after
| determination that the stock cultures
! are right, is propagation. First a few
colonies are started by swabbing over
with stock bacilli the surface of a
, gelatinous substance made from agar
agar Japanese seaweed), which is
used as the culture medium. After
incubation the colonies which an
pear are washed off with LIQUID
culture medium called ''broth." This
broth is used for swabbing the
agar-agar surfaces in large number
OF TASKS, the desired quantity Of ba-
cllll for vaccine being obtained by in
cubating the cultures in these TASKS
Every Care Against Contamination
This swabbing operation is done in
rooms whose walls are washed down
with antiseptic each morning, with
doors and windows tightly closed, and
IN very moist atmosphere of high
temperature. It was often above 1OC
degrees F. in these rooms last summer
and Is known to have reached 1874 de
grees on one occasion. The workers
wear sterilized coats and rubber
gloves, rarely speak, make as few and
as slow movements as possible, so that
there will be little air circulation, and
In every way minimize the possibilities
of contamination.
| After the TASKS swabbed with
"broth" have incubated, the billions OF
bacteria in each are washed off with
a salt solution and this emulsion heat
ed to So degrees G. (127.4 degrees F.)
This kills large number of the bacilli
One-fOurth of l per cent of tricresol
coal-tar product, is added, which
kills all the rest of them and also act.
as preservative.
Test Cultures Made.
After the emulsion of broth and ba
clll1 has been heated, a test culture
IS made to see that it is still uncon
tamlnated. After the tricresol ha
been added, other test cultures ar
. made, both in air and in a vacuum. t.
determine whether incubation will dis
: close any communicating microorgan
isms. Certain dangerous germs will
not incubate if. exposed to the air.
This is done in spite of the fact tina
+ there are few bacteria, either harmless
or Injurious, which the tricresol vii
not kill.