Roll Down Your Sleeves, America!

"We cannot afford to take a chance with the health of this country." With those words. President Ford last March unveiled an ambitious effort to vaccinate Americans against a possible outbreak of swine flu this winter. Last week, after the latest in a series of setbacks, it was the health of the $135 million mass-inoculation program that seemed in jeopardy. Alarmed by a mysterious paralysis among some people who have received swine flu shots, federal officials indefinitely suspended the nationwide effort. Even if the shots are resumed--and people could be persuaded to take them--they may be too late in the flu season to do any good.

The strange ailment that triggered the new concern is a disorder of the nervous system called GuIllaIn-Barre syndrome. Named for the French doctors who described it in 1916. it begins with paralysis in the legs and may gradually spread upward to the hands and arms and the rest of the body. Most people eventually recover (the death rate is 5%), but if the breathing muscles are seriously impaired, a respirator may be needed during the critical period. No one knows what causes the paralyzing nerve inflammation, though the syndrome seems to strike more often after viral infections, vaccinations and surgery. Doctors suspect that it may involve an immunological reaction, but they have no clue to what triggers it.

Officials of the U.S. Public Health Service's Center for Disease Control (CDC) were first alerted when a number of states reported a disturbing trend: GuIllaIn-Barre syndrome seemed to be occurring with greater frequency among people who had been inoculated than among those who had not. A quick survey confirmed their fears: only one out of every five Americans (nearly 40 million) had received their swine-flu shots. Yet, of the 107 suspected paralysis cases in 18 states, more than half--at least 58 people, including six who later died--had been inoculated, usually about two weeks before they became ill.

Prudent Course. Faced with these incriminating statistics and lacking any evidence of an impending swine-flu outbreak, federal officials took what Dr. Theodore Cooper, HEW assistant secretary for health, last week described as "the only prudent course of action": they immediately halted the program until they could prove or disprove the link between the vaccine and the paralysis. The investigation, which has already determined that no single batch of vaccine can be blamed, will take at least a month. If the vaccine is cleared, Cooper says, he will recommend resumption of the program--both to provide protection against swine flu and to restore public confidence in mass immunization. Senator Edward Kennedy was less optimistic. At week's end, after convening his health subcommittee on the latest crisis, he noted that the psychological impact on the American people had been "shattering." Said he: "For all practical purposes, the suspension means the end of the swine-flu program."

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