Germ-free newborn baby.

Long term experience with germ-free animal experiments and technology encouraged us to apply the know-how in the field of the care of human neonates with presumed immunodeficiency. The program was carried out at the Faculty of Pediatrics of Charles University in Prague. The sterile caesarean section was performed within the plastic surgical isolator overlying the pregnant mother. A new type of this isolator adapted for the use in human medicine was designed and constructed. For the care of the neonate another special isolator was used. The whole isolator system included two rigid supply isolators, too. The newborn was sterile up to the age of 1 month. During this time, the newborns immunological capacity was investigated and found to be almost normal. Afterwards, the infant was gradually colonized with selected strains of bacteria and thus prepared for conventionalization.