WASHINGTON, May 12, 1955 (UP)--The Public Heath Service expects to release the first batch of embargoed Salk vaccine today and resume the nation's polio vaccination program tomorrow after a six-day halt. Barring a last-minute hitch, the Health Service indicated it is ready to notify all health authorities that "several batches" of Parke Davis vaccine have been doublechecked in Detroit and are approved for immediate use in inoculations.
The batches to be cleared probably represent several hundred thousand doses of the vaccine. These doses already are in the hands of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, local health officials, and private physicians.
The vaccine to be cleared was approved by the Public Health Service some time ago. But Dr. Leonard A. Scheele, U.S. surgeon general, ordered a recheck Saturday of all vaccine stocks after more than 50 cases of polio had developed among vaccinated children. The officially reported number is now 64.
While the recheck was in progress, he strongly recommended that all inoculations be halted.
A team of Health Service experts, headed by Dr. William G. Workman, made a detailed study of Parke Davis' vaccine records in Washington and then went to Detroit yesterday to conduct an on-the-spot check of the firm's manufacturing and testing methods.
Meanwhile, two Democratic congressmen -- Abraham Multer of West Virginia and Charles Vanik of Cleveland -- demanded that President Eisenhower order Welfare Secretary Oveta Culp Hobby to answer charges that she approved the polio vaccination program without adequate testing of the vaccine.
They want her to appear before the House Banking Committee.
Scheele has agreed to testify tomorrow.
Mrs. Hobby, as secretary of welfare, has supervision over the Government's Public Health Bureau and scientific laboratories which check on and test medical and drug pro-rams in the nation.
Multer said Mrs. Hobby has turned down three invitations to testify.
