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90
The following table records the number of persons known to have been
vaccinated or re vaccinated during 1953, by general practitioners and clinic
medical officers.

Imnunisation against Diphtheria and Whooping Cough
As mentioned in my last annual report it was decided towards the end of
1952 that general use should be made of the new combined diphtheria pertussis
vaccine in preference to the previous policy of providing immunisation against
diphtheria and whooping cough in two separate courses of injections. The
new vaccine has the advantage of reducing the number of injections required
from five or six to only three.
The success of previous efforts to secure that all children were immunised
against diphtheria can be measured by the fact that this disease has
been virtually eliminated, but as was pointed out by the Minister of Health
early in 1953 the continuance of this happy state of affairs is conditional
upon the maintenance of an adequate level of immunisation To ensure that
this is done the Minister suggested that the aim of all authorities should be
to secure that at least 75% of babies are immunised before the end of the
first year of life.
In order to achieve this it was considered necessary in May 1953 to
implement a new policy in the Area with the intention of combatting any
tendency on the part of parents to the complacent attitude that it was no
longer necessary to have their children immunised against diphtheria.
The following is the outline of the scheme which was then put into
operation and which is continuing in use
Primary Imnunisation
1 Doctors and health visitors are asked to make a particular point of
enquiring of all mothers attending welfare centres whether their
children have been immunised, and as more than 85% of children bom
attend in their first year of life, the aim must be to secure the
immunisation of most of this number.
2 Immunisation sessions are held at least monthly at all welfare
centres (twice a month at the larger ones).