London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1951
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington Borough]
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was immunised and all eventually recovered. Towards the end of the year there
was another outbreak with more tragic consequences. The family involved comprised
parents and six children, the eldest nine years old ; the first patient in the family
was a seven-year-old boy who was sent into hospital severely ill ; two days later an
eight-year-old sister also began to sicken from diphtheria and in another two days
a younger sister, five years old, contracted the same illness. The seven-year-old
boy unfortunately died within a few days. The eight-year-old sister was also in
danger of her life for a time, but recovered after a long illness, the younger sister
bad a less severe attack. None of these children was immunised. In the next-door
house another child, aged 4|, also sickened about the same time and was diagnosed
as a mild case of diphtheria. Three weeks later the elder brother of this child was
removed to hospital as a case of diphtheria. Neither of these children was immunised.
It is obvious from these outbreaks that diphtheria can still be a source of tragic
risk when children are not immunised.
Diphtheria and Immunisation.
The diphtheria risks for the non-immunised child, as shown in the above report
of 1951 outbreaks, are demonstrated more conclusively if the cases are taken over a
period of years. From the table below showing the relative diphtheria risks in recent
years to immunised and non-immunised children, there seems no reason to doubt
that if higher immunisation rates could have been achieved, there would have been
fewer cases of diphtheria in Islington in 1950 and 1951.
Diphtheria Cases and Immunisation state 1947-1951 (inclusive)
| Immunised | Non-Immunised | Un-known | Total | Deaths | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age Groups | Age Groups | ||||||||||
| 0-5 | 5—15 | 15+ | 0—5 | 5—15 | 15 + | ||||||
| 1951 | 1 | 2 | - | 8 | 5 | 1 | - | 17 | 7 vears—Not immunised | ||
| 1950 | — | 5 | — | 3 | 7 | 4 | _ | 10 | 7 vears—Not immunised | ||
| 1949 | 1 | 3 | — | 2 | 8 | 3 | — | 17 | 4 years | Not immunised | |
| (i years | |||||||||||
| 1948 | 1 | 2> | 1 | 1 | _ | 2 | _ | 7 | Nil | ||
| 1947 | — | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 19 | 10 years—Not immunised | ||
| Totals | 3 | 17 | 2 | 16 | 24 | 15 | 2 | 70 | 5 deaths (None immunised) | ||
| 22 | 55 | ||||||||||
In comparing diphtheria in immunised and non-immunised children over the
five-year period 1947-51, it is probable that over the period, slightly more than
half the children under five were in an immunised state, and at least three quarters
of the school children. The 24 non-immunised school children who contracted
diphtheria, therefore, belong to a group numbering not more than one third of the
immunised school children.
It therefore seems that over this period, a non-immunised child was about five
times more liable to contract diphtheria than an immunised child. Further, of the
79 Islington children who have had diphtheria over the past five years, five have
died, and none of these five was immunised. Tliis is in agreement with all previous
extensive experience of immunisation in Islington. It has not been possible, in spite
of careful records having been kept (although these cannot be quite complete) to
trace the death from diphtheria of any child immunised in the Borough who has
satisfactorily completed an immunisation course since 1930,