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48
Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham.
Protection against Diphtheria.
One of the most serious diseases which attack children is
diphtheria, both in the severity of the illness and in the after effects
which it leaves with the sufferer. Not every child, of course, is
attacked by diphtheria, but the risk is always present, especially
young children and school children. The fact that anyone can be
protected against the disease has been abundantly proved. Owing
to the nature of their work, fever hospital nurses are greatly exposed
to the infection of diphtheria, but when protected by immunisation,
they do not contract the disease. Children in large numbers in Great
Britain have been similarly treated and protected against the disease.
The Council of the Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham have
now made arrangements with medical practitioners to pay the
doctor's fee for the protection of children between the ages of one
and twelve years.
The treatment involves three injections, which usually cause no
disturbance to the child ; there is no sore at the point of injection
and no scar or mark is left. The protection does not develop fully
until about three or four months after the three injections. After
this time, it will generally last over that period of the child's life
when it is most likely to contract diphtheria, and may indeed last
throughout life.
If any parent or guardian wishes to have his children protected
against diphtheria, or to have any further advice on the matter, he
should consult his own doctor, or, if he has no family doctor, he
should enquire at the Public Health Department at the Town Hall,
Catford, S.E.6.
JOHN W. MILLER,
Medical Officer of Health.
P.S.—Although your child, if protected, is extremely unlikely to
contract diphtheria, it must not be assumed that such a thing is
impossible. A very few cases of diphtheria have occurred amongst
immunised children, but it must be pointed out that such attacks
are nearly always slight.