Marburg Virus: Consequences for the Manufacture and Control of Virus Vaccines

Abstract

The consequences of the outbreak of hemorrhagic monkey fever for the manufacture and control of virus vaccines may be seen under several aspects of a more limited or a more general importance. I shall not dwell upon some transient consequences restricted to the Behringwerke and the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute where the disease occurred, although they caused considerable difficulties in the continuation and expansion of both production and control of several vaccines. Most of these difficulties, fortunately, could be solved within a fairly short priod—at least, as far as Behringwerke are concerned. I shall discuss, however, two general aspects of a more permanent importance. At first a few words must be said about the choice of cell cultures for vaccine production—although the tendency to shift from monkey kidney cultures to other cell systems did not begin with this accident. And finally, we have to deal with some safety precautions for vaccine production and with practicable methods for detecting this particular agent when present in individual vaccine lots.