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Re: diseases and immunity
Philip Deitiker (pdeitik@bcm.tmc.edu)
Sun, 14 Jul 1996 23:54:30 GMT
mbwillia@ix.netcom.com(Mary Beth Williams) wrote:
>In <31DB260D.78DE@best.com> Joel and Lynn Gazis-Sax <gazissax@best.com>
>writes:
> Its already been
>discussed that transfer of maternal immunity only lasts for the period
>during breastfeeding (hence, the high mortality of post-weening
>toddlers.)
There is some reasons to believe that this is not entirely true as I
mentioned previously, I haven't seen the new studies yet but the claim
is that there are some lifelong transferances of immunity between
mother and child. For me, the question should remain open, I don't
want to be the guy who says only a protein can be an enzyme or a
infectious pathogen must be alive or contain polynucleotide. But more
important to the point if epidemics occur every 40 years or more then
the interval is actually 2 filial generations, as such the 2nd filial
generation must be 'reeducated' to fight the disease. None the less
the maternal contribution at age 1, 5 and no maternal transfer might
mean the difference between getting sick, getting really sick and
dying, respectively.
Philip
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