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In September, 1933, the Public Health Committee considered a
letter from the Medical Officer of Health for Poplar stating that
owing to lack of support the Diphtheria Immunisation Clinic established
in that Borough had been closed in 1930, but that requests
were received occasionally from persons residing in Poplar for
immunisation treatment, and in these circumstances the Committee
were asked whether the Hackney Borough Council would be prepared
to permit these persons to attend at the Hackney Clinic.
The Public Health Committee agreed to enter into an arrangement
with the Poplar Borough Council for the immunisation of
children at a charge of 10s. for a complete course of treatment and
2s. 6d. for a case found to be naturally immune and therefore not
requiring immunising injections.
A few cases have been dealt with under this arrangement.
The following is a report by the Medical Officer in charge of
the Clinic :—
REPORT BY DR. F. PORTER-SMITH.
Diphtheria, with its persistently high incidence and mortality,
has for long constituted a grave menace, particularly to the child
population.
The Ministry of Health in Memo. 170/Med., which was quoted
in full in the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health for
1932, state:—
" It is essentially a disease of children under the age of fifteen years.
About 60,000 cases are notified annually in England and Wales and the
average annual number of deaths is approximately 3,000."
The problem of the prevention of infectious diseases in such a
densely populated city as London is an extremely difficult one—
the methods adopted to control the spread of infection, e.g., isolation,
removal to hospital, etc., are necessary but often difficult and always
costly. It has been estimated that the cost to ratepayers of London