Trial of an Oral Vaccine against Bacterial Infection Accompanying the Common Cold

Abstract

THE significance of the common cold in industry and the incapacity and loss of time that result require no emphasis. It is estimated that millions of man-days of work are lost each year as the result of upper respiratory tract infections. It seems likely that the filterable virus is the primary causative agent, and that secondary symptoms are due to bacterial infection. It was felt, as a result of reports appearing in the American medical press and in view of the shortage of labour in 1944–45, that it would be useful to attempt to immunize against secondary organisms by the use of an oral vaccine.