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bodies to EBV was described by Henle et al. [2]; use of this technique for several recent studies showed that EBV is related to, or probably is the etiologic agent of infectious mononucleosis (IM). Henle et al. [3] reported that patients regularly develop antibodies to EBV during the course of IM. Diehl et al. [4] demonstrated EBV in acute phase lymphocytes from IM patients; these results were confirmed by several laboratories [5-11] but the interpretation has also been disputed [12-16]. EBV antibodies were shown to differ from the

Since the introduction of acellular pertussis vaccines in Japan late in 1981, more than 20 million doses have been administered, mostly to children 2 years of age and older. Clinical studies indicate that mild local and febrile reactions are less frequent after administration of acellular pertussis vaccines than after whole-cell vaccines. Serious adverse events with sequelae occurred in 2-year-old children at approximately the same low rate during the period 1975 through August 1981, when whole-cell vaccines were used, and during August 1981 through 1984, when acellular vaccines were used exclusively. Five household contact studies have yielded vaccine efficacy estimates ranging from 78% to 92% in children 1 year of age or older. In addition, there has been a continuing decrease in reported pertussis incidence from the epidemic peak in 1979. Additional data on the safety and efficacy of acellular pertussis vaccines administered to infants would be useful in consideration of acellular pertussis vaccine licensure in the United States.

Influenza A (H3N2) viruses were isolated from outbreaks and epidemics of disease during the period December 1977 to March 1978. For the last two months of this period, H1N1 strains of influenza A were also responsible for epidemics. In some regions (e.g., Hawaii) co-circulation of H1N1 AND H3N2 strains occurred, whereas in other regions (e.g., Wisconsin) isolation of H3N2 strains had almost ceased prior to isolation of H1N1 strains. Few influenza B isolates were reported. Analysis of the ages of patients from whom specimens were submitted for influenza virus isolation confirmed that, whereas H3N2 strains were isolated from persons of all ages, greater than 97 per cent of H1N1 isolates in six states analyzed were recovered from patients less than 26 years old, although specimens were tested from older persons who were ill during the period of prevalence of H1N1 influenza. The majority of H3N2 isolates tested by hemagglutinin-inhibition reaction were similar to A/Texas/1/77, and the majority of H1N1 isolates were similar to A/USSR/90/77. Antigenic analysis of isolates, however, identified a small number of variants of H3N2 and H1N1 strains.

The character of the immune response to inactivated monovalent influenza A/New Jersey/76 (A/NJ/76) and bivalent influenza A/New Jersey/76-A/Victoria/75 (A/NJ/76-A/Vic/75) vaccines was studied in children 6 months to 18 years of age. Hemagglutination-inhibiting antibody levels were measured in post-vaccination serums before and after 2-mercaptoethanol treatment. IgG antibody predominated in responses to the influenza A/Vic/75 component of bivalent vaccines. In contrast, specific IgM antibody against influenza A/NJ/76 developed after both monovalent and bivalent vaccines, and appears to characterize the immune response to this antigenic "shift" strain in children. Prevalences of IgM antibody against influenza A/NJ/76 did not differ significantly by age, implying that type rather than extent of previous influenza experience determines the IgM antibody response to an antigenic "shift". Slit-product vaccines produced significantly fewer IgM antibody responses to influenza A/NJ/76 than did whole-virus vaccines, a phenomenon which may correlate with their diminished reactogenicity and immunogenicity in children.