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This year, fifty-one per cent (1966 - twenty-eight per cent) of
the infected immigrants contracted the disease within one year of
arrival in this country; sixty-nine per cent (1966 - thirty-eight
per cent) contracted within three years of arrival. Persons born in
the Republic of Ireland were regarded as immigrants for this purpose.
INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATES.
In order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, certain
countries require that visitors should be vaccinated or inoculated
against specific diseases.
International certificates have been prescribed for smallpox,
cholera and yellow fever. When completed by a medical practitioner,
the certificate must be authenticated by the Medical Officer of Health.
During the year, 7,812 of these certificates were authenticated.
In addition, 11 special certificates were issued to travellers who
refused vaccination on medical or religious grounds.
IMMUNISATION AND VACCINATION.
Immunisation of children against poliomyelitis, diphtheria,
whooping cough, smallpox and tetanus has continued to be carried out
by the Council and general practitioners. The numbers of completed
courses of immunisation are all lower than those for 1966 but those
for booster doses show, in the main, considerable increases. There
is still an unsatisfactory response from parents to all forms of
encouragement to have their children immunised at recommended ages.
Attention was drawn by the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of
Health in November, 1967, to the "disquietingly large variation in
the acceptance rates" for prophylaxis of children born in 1965 in
different areas as recorded in his Annual Report for 1966, and to
the need to raise these rates.