Symposium on Immunization against Arbovirus Infections: Introduction

The number of viruses included in the arbo group has increased rapidly in recent years. Many of the new additions bear exotic names of villages or crossroads in faraway places. This plethora of names confuses the uninitiated and is apt to give pause to even the avant-garde among the arbovirologists. The expanding arbovirus group also includes many of the old familiar viruses such as those of yellow fever, the dengues, the encephalitis groups, and others. While the medical importance of a host of the newly recognized members of the group remains to be evaluated, there is no question regarding the capacity of a number of long-recognized viruses, now grouped as arboviruses, to induce disease in man. Among these diseases, only one has an entirely satisfactory means of immunoprophylactic control, namely, yellow fever. The program for this Symposium has been designed to accomplish several purposes.