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Number of children who were Primary Schick Tested with
negative result and therefore did not require immunisation 34
Number of children re-tested with a negative result 455
Number of children Post Schick Tested with a negative result 3,027
Although there were 55 notifications of diphtheria in 1949, only 17 of these
were confirmed subsequently. Although these figures are somewhat higher than
the previous year, they are nevertheless only a fraction of the pre-war figures. The
great protection which immunisation affords is now generally accepted by the public,
as shown by the fact that approximately three-fifths of the under-fives and four-fifths
of the over-fives are estimated to have been immunised against diphtheria. The
two deaths from diphtheria which occurred were in children not immunised.
Arrangements were continued in 1949 for the diphtheria immunisation mobile
clinic to tour the Borough, and evidence of its attractiveness is shown in the following
table of attendances.
Total Sessions 21
Total Injections 1,555
1st Injections for diphtheria 357
Completed immunisations 58
1st Injections for Whooping Cough 852
Completed immunisations for Whooping Cough 122
Whooping Cough Prophylaxis.
An increasing number of parents during the year requested prophylactic
treatment to be given to their children against whooping cough. Although it is
extremely difficult in the case of whooping cough to assess the results and to say,
in any one case, partial or complete protection has been given for a period, it may
well be that an inoculated child suffers from only a modified attack if complete
protection is not afforded. The figures for the year—which are also included in the
diphtheria immunisation table—are as follows ;—