Multiple Antigen for Immunization Against Poliomyelitis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus

The use of triple antigen (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus combined, or DPT) in pediatric practice is well established, and its efficacy has been reviewed and discussed by Edsall¹and Ipsen and Bowen.²With the accepted schedules of four-to-six-week intervals between inoculations, there has been good response to each of the three antigens in combination even when immunization is started at a very early age.³During 1956 the attack rates for paralytic poliomyelitis were highest in one-year-old children,⁴thereby also indicating the need for early poliomyelitis immunization. The widespread use of killed trivalent poliomyelitis vaccine in older children has been amply justified and the vaccine shown to evoke a response in infants.⁵On this basis poliomyelitis immunization of infants has been advocated⁶and the possibility of incorporation of the poliovirus antigens into DPT has aroused considerable interest. Response of infants to pertussis vaccine or DPT