Exhibit 072

Poliomyelitis Surveillance Unit, Special Report No. 2 (May 1955)

Exhibit 072 · Surveillance report

Poliomyelitis Surveillance Unit, Special Report No. 2 (May 1955)

An eight-page working document marked 'not for publication / for official use only', prepared for the Public Health Service Expert Committee on Poliomyelitis. As of 13 May 1955 it counts 59 accepted cases among children vaccinated with Cutter's vaccine and 9 contact cases, dates the first reports to 27 April, and associates the cases with that manufacturer's vaccine; it finds nothing but coincidence for Wyeth or Lilly vaccine and no association for Pittman-Moore or Parke-Davis. It names Tennessee and Georgia. Its incubation table is monkey data.

Source: Communicable Disease Center, U.S. Public Health Service
Date: May 1955
Grade: Primary record
Document: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/42228/cdc_42228_DS1.pdf
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit
Note: A companion report: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/43902/cdc_43902_DS1.pdf

Cited by

Finding MED-5.1: Primary record A California court held Cutter Laboratories liable for polio caused by its 1955 vaccine after a jury found the company had not been negligent.
Finding MED-7.1: Reported Before Cutter's polio vaccine was licensed, an NIH scientist found that half the Cutter lots she tested paralyzed monkeys. Her results did not reach the licensing committee.