Burian V, Gotschlich E, Kuzemenská P, Svandová E
Bull World Health Organ. 1977;55(6):653-7.
Immunity in meningococcal diseases has been inadequately studied and, until now, most attempts at serotherapy and immunization against meningococcal meningitis have been unsuccessful. To ascertain the status of immunity among children at greatest risk of contracting the disease, 267 serum specimens from healthy children aged from 1 month to 5 years were examined with Farr's radioimmunological technique, as simplified by Gotschlich. The results showed that the children must have received maternal antibodies through the transplacental route. Antibodies persisted up to the third month of life, after which they were virtually undetectable until, at about 8 months of age, antibodies reappeared. Subsequently there was a gradual rise, especially from 2 to 5 years, 97% of children in the highest age group having serum antibody levels of 0.479 mug/ml or more. These children may have had meningococcal infections that were wrongly diagnosed as respiratory disease of unknown etiology.
关于脑膜炎球菌疾病的免疫情况研究不足，直到现在，大多数针对脑膜炎球菌性脑膜炎的血清疗法和免疫接种尝试都未成功。为了确定最易感染该疾病的儿童的免疫状况，采用戈特施利希简化的法尔放射免疫技术，对267份来自1个月至5岁健康儿童的血清样本进行了检测。结果表明，这些儿童必定是通过胎盘途径获得了母体抗体。抗体持续到生命的第三个月，之后几乎检测不到，直到大约8个月大时抗体再次出现。随后抗体水平逐渐上升，尤其是在2至5岁年龄段，最高年龄组中97%的儿童血清抗体水平达到0.479微克/毫升或更高。这些儿童可能曾患脑膜炎球菌感染，但被误诊为病因不明的呼吸道疾病。
