Medical science has scored a long-awaited achievement in development of a hepatitis vaccine calculated to save a great many lives each year. Expensive, but claimed to be 95 percent effective against hepatitis B, the vaccine is made in West Point, Pa. It was licensed by the Food and Drug Administration last November, according to Dr, Maurice Hilleman, director of virus and cell biology research at the Merck, Sharp Ez Dohme Research Laboratories in West Point. Hepatitis’B is more severe than Hepatitis A, explained Dr. Saul Krugman, a New York University School of Medicine pediatrician who helped test the vaccine. About 4.000 die from hepatitis B-related cirrhosis each year, and about 800 from Hepatitis B-linked liver cancer. The drug company making the vaccine has shipped 300,000 doses to doctors and will keep the supply moving as government inspectors approve each new batch produced. The vaccine, in the process of development since 1965. is made from blood plasma collected from people who can’t donate blood to blood banks because the’ve had hepatitis. Three shots are required – the second a month after the first, and the third six months later – with a booster recommended five years later. Time will tell whether the new vaccine lives up to its billing as the longawaited medical answer to hepatitis. At this point its hoped-for potential stirs recollections of other successes in medical research. notably the Salk anti-polio serum 27 years ago which, with subsequent developments, led to virtual elimination of polio among vaccinated populations. It also helps recall the development of antimeasles vaccines which have achieved spectacular success and have prompted 40 states to enact legislation for mandatory immunization among school children. Medical research, which has produced these and other developments of vaccines and drugs for the health and longevity of mankind, is deserving of the appreciation. i