Viral vaccines safety tests

Viral vaccines present problems of safety testing far more complex than those experienced with bacterial vaccines. With killed viral vaccines the potential hazards are those due to incomplete virus inactivation and the consequent presence of residual live virus in the preparation. The tests used to detect such live virus consist of the inoculation of susceptible tissue cultures and of susceptible animals. The cultures are examined for cytopathic effects and the animals for symptoms of disease and histological evidence of infection at autopsy. This test is of particular importance in inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine, the vaccine being injected intraspinally into monkeys. At autopsy, sections of brain and spinal cord are examined microscopically for the histological lesions indicative of proliferating poliovirus. 

Viral vaccines can present problems of safety testing far more complex than those experienced with most bacterial vaccines. With killed viral vac-... 

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