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Whooping Cough is the most dangerous infection of infancy.
The damage which is liable to be done to the tissues of the
lungs by the intensity of the cough, the liability of the
weakened lung tissues to secondary infection and the strain
applied to the heart and circulation, make the prevention or
early termination of this illness a matter of great importance
Prevention of infection in homes and schools is made
difficult by the indefinite nature of the symptoms in the early
catarrhal phase which may last for 7 to 14 days before the whoop
is defined Cough plates to detect the organism can be helpful
in diagnosis The new drug Chloromycetin is proving useful in
the prevention of mortality in babies and weakly children, and
in the reduction of infection among older children in homes
where babies are at risk. There is still a need for a safe and
effective vaccine to reduce the incidence of the disease.
Information of notifications of children under five years of
age is sent to all Health Visitors in order that help and advice
may be given where necessary. A leaflet of advice is sent to the
home of every notified case
Immunisation against Whooping Cough. During the year, one
hundred and sixty six children received a course of injections of
Whooping Cough Vaccine, making a total of 1,197 children treated
since 1945. Ten cases notified during the year had received
injections during the past five years, giving an incidence among
the immunised no less than in the general child population. The
material used was Pertussis S Vaccine/20 million bacilli per c. c.
Recent large scale trials have proved that the vaccines in use
up to the present have been variable and of uncertain immunising
value, but that one vaccine manufactured according to a new
specification of American origin is of high immunising power and
worthy of general use Unfortunately, colncidently with this
important discovery, a report was published of a positive correlation
between injection of certain forms of alum precipitated
vaccine and paralysis of muscle in Poliomyelitis It was necessary
to proceed cautiously during the Summer and Autumn and to defer
injections of Whooping Cough vaccine until the interepidemic period
of Poliomyelitis. January to May. At the end of the year arrangements
were made to use this new vaccine, which marks a definite
advance towards the prevention of Whooping Cough.
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