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64
VACCINATION.
Table X. (appendix) is a return respecting vaccination in
Kensington in 1896 (the return for 1897 is not yet published),
compiled by Mr. Shattock, the Vaccination Officer, whose
able discharge of duties, not easy of performance in these
days, deserves recognition. It appears that of 3,677 infants
whose births were returned in "Birth List Sheets" (col. 2)
during the year, 2,842 were successfully vaccinated, and 25
were returned as " insusceptible of vaccination." In 56 cases
vaccination was postponed by medical certificate; 12 children
were removed to other known districts; and 357 died before
attaining the age for vaccination; whilst some 374 cases from
"removal to places out of the parish unknown, or which
cannot be reached, and cases not having been found," are
unaccounted for. These cases are equivalent to a "loss" of
101 per cent., as compared with the number of births registered
(or 113 percent. if the 357 cases in column 6, "dead
unvaccinated," are deducted), the losses in the preceding ten
years having been 5.4, 5.9, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 8.0, 8.7, 7.7, 8.4, and
9 0, per cent. respectively. These figures clearly indicate that
the proportion of unvaccinated persons in this parish is on the
increase. Of the 2,842 successful vaccinations in Kensington,in
1896,1,604 (56.4 per cent.) were performed at the public stations
and the parish infirmary. Calf lymph was employed when
parents expressed the wish to have it. The revaccinations at
the stations and the infirmary were 623 in number. Ken.
sington still stands in a position superior to the Metropolis, as
a whole, for, as stated in the annual report of the Local
Government Board for 1896-97, the average of lost cases in
the metropolitan district in 1894 was 20.6 per cent. The
actual figures, showing loss, both for town and country, as set
out in the last published return, in the annual report of the
Board for 1896-97, are as follows :—