Desoxycholate-split influenza vaccines.

Promising results have been obtained with vaccines prepared from influenza virus disrupted by treatment with desoxycholate. Trials conducted in Australia among children showed that desoxycholate-split vaccine caused no untoward reactions, even when administered in relatively large doses; similar results were obtained in adults. Methods for the large-scale production of such vaccine have therefore been developed in Australia.During 1969 over 6 million doses of desoxycholate-split A2/Hong Kong vaccine have been administered in that country, which was reached by the Hong Kong virus variant in August 1968. However, planned field trials with this vaccine have been of little value because of the limited nature of the influenza outbreak in Australia as a whole. Nevertheless, the vaccine does appear to have afforded protection in a widespread outbreak among the aboriginal population of central Australia caused by a second wave of Hong Kong influenza.