[Prevention of the anti-interferon effect of exogenous leukocyte interferon in children]

The preventive effect of exogenous leukocyte interferon used twice weekly at a 3-day interval in the period of an influenza epidemic as well as the effect of this preparation on the capacity of leukocytes to produce endogenous interferon were studied in young infants brought to nurseries. The observations covered 146 infants varying in ages from 11 months to 31/2 years, of them 104 infants were given interferon intranasally from an automizer (conditional experimental group) and 42 received no interferon (conditional) control group). During the period of interferon prophylaxis (5 weeks) a significant. 7-fold, reduction in the morbidity rate was observed in the group given interferon as compared to the control group. Observations in the time course showed a reduced incidence in the experimental group for a year. During the use of interferon in infants there was an increase in the capacity to produce endogenous interferon as manifested by a significant rise in titres by the end of interferon prophylaxis.