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reaching the age of six months. As this factor, if significant, would
tend to explain the difficulty in achieving the Ministry of Health
target of 75% immunised children under one year of age, a fuller
investigation was carried out. It was found that for the Area as a
whole approximately 10% of the children born between October, 1952,
and July, 1953, moved out of the Area before they were six months old.
The health visitor's district served by the Fortis Green Centre showed
the greatest number of such removals, no less than 20% of such
children having left the district. This migration is compensated to
some extent by movements into the Area. Some of these children are
notified to us by the health authorities in whose areas they previously
resided, while others are taken by their mothers to the infant welfare
centres or are found by the health visitors on their districts. There is
no guarantee, however, that every unimmunised baby who comes to
live in the Area is brought within the ambit of the above scheme, and
to that extent the attainable immunisation percentage is reduced.
Notwithstanding this, the success of the local campaign may be
judged from the following table which records immunisations carried
out by area medical staff and general practitioners during 1953. 410
more children were primarily immunised and 1,258 more received
reinforcing injections than in 1952.