View report page

9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the Public Health Department, 35, Brunswick
Square, as well as at the Dulwich Baths and at all hours of the
day and night at the Town Clerk's Department, 17, Camberwell
Green.
In 1933 the Borough Council supplied 90 phials of anti-toxin
of 8,000 units and 31 phials of 500 units to medical practitioners
in the Borough.
Immunisation against Diphtheria.
Among modern methods of preventive medicine diphtheria
immunisation stands pre-eminent.
Facilities are available for this treatment at the Municipal
Infant Welfare Centre, 140, Camberwell Road, every Wednesday
afternoon.
An intensive campaign is conducted from the Health Department
to bring this process before the public, but unfortunately the
response is not very satisfactory. No matter how small the number
of persons immunised yearly, this valuable means of preventing
this dread disease should, nevertheless, always be available as a
Public Health service.
The number of injections necessary to complete the treatment
no doubt serves as a deterrent in some cases, and if this could be
overcome by the use of a prophylactic which would in one injection
immunise almost any child and remove the necessity of Schick
tests before and after immunisation, there is no doubt that the
public would more readily avail itself of this method of securing
protection for their children against this disease.
There is a certain proportion of children, roughly 10 per cent.,
in whom the ordinary course of 3 injections of 1 c.c. is not successful
in producing permanent immunity. These children are most prone
to develop the disease and are those among whom death would
normally result in a number of instances. Immunisation can be
effected in these children by extending the process. In approximately
1 per cent., protection for any length of time is impossible,
as the immunity produced artificially disappears rapidly unless
periodically activated.
More recently a modified procedure of immunisation by giving
a larger final dose of Toxoid-antitoxin,i.e., 1-5 c.c. instead of 1 c.c.,
has been adopted. The results have been most encouraging, as
it is now quite rare to find a child Schick-positive 3 months after
the modified course of three injections. It appears that nearly
every child can be protected by this means. As regards durability
of the immunity so produced, this can only be demonstrated in
the course of time, but it seems reasonable to suppose that it will
be correspondingly satisfactory.