Adenoviral Infection in Military Recruits

Abstract

Field studies were made at Fort Dix, NJ, in 1966 and 1967 of the protective effect of oral live type 4 adenovirus vaccine against severe, incapacitating acute respiratory disease (ARD) in military recruits. The vaccine largely or completely eliminated type 4 adenovirus as the cause of such disease, but the suppression of type 4 by immunization was associated with replacement ARD that was caused by type 7 adenovirus in 1966 and by both type 7 and type 21 in 1967. The outbreak of ARD caused by type 21 was the first of its kind in the western hemisphere. The results of these studies show that adenoviral infection in military recruits cannot be controlled with a monovalent type 4 vaccine and that additional vaccines containing type 7 and probably other antigenic types will be required.