IMMUNIZATION IN THE YOUNG INFANT: Response to Combined Vaccines: I-IV

I. INTRODUCTION  THE ABILITY of young infants to produce antibodies had not until recently been explored. The examination of some of the factors related to this problem is the object of this study.The thesis of Hirszfeld and the related studies of many others reported during the first 25 years of this century were ably summarized by Baumgartner¹ in 1934. She concluded that the evidence presented indicated the development in the person during early life of a certain biochemical reflex of antibody production, a development comparable, for example, to that of sexual maturity. This expressed the common belief of that time that infants were incapable of forming antibody, and that failure was due to a physiological immaturity. One must admit that there was little to controvert such a view.These studies ignore or overlook the fact that infections in the young do engender immunity. There is and has been