Word: rsv
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Most adults carry telltale antibody showing that they have been infected with RSV at some time. The virus probably caused what seemed to be only a bad cold, and since the mild infection left no permanent damage, it was for gotten. But to infants under six months old, RSV is a far more serious threat...
...about six months of age, babies carry in their bloodstream their mothers' antibody against RSV. By the basic rules of virology, this should protect them. Obviously, it doesn...
Type A is most important in RSV disease, because it is a fixed antibody attached to cells lining the nasal passages and the bronchial tree. Once entrenched there, it usually chokes off an RSV infection...
...under-six-months baby, suggested Dr. Chanock, still has little or no immunoglobulin A to fight off RSV. So the virus gets to his bronchioles and lungs. There, it wreaks havoc by causing 50 or more cells to merge into giant combines. Oxygen exchange is so impaired that the baby has asthma-like spasms. To make matters worse, said Dr. Chanock, the G antibody circulating in the blood just below the lungs' surface actually combines with virus particles to form more damaging complexes...
Although some virologists differed with Dr. Chanock about details, they agreed that the newly developed vaccine against RSV must not be given to infants under six months, as it appears to increase the risk and severity of pneumonia. A similar phenomenon is now being seen in connection with another viral disease: circulating antibody from killed-virus vaccine against measles also seems to make a child more susceptible to severe disease if he later receives live-virus vaccine...