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A check of all the children in the nursery had earlier revealed that 16
had received three injections of poliomyelitis vaccine; 15 had had two injections
and nine had had one injection. Among the 25 children who had not had
an injection of poliomyelitis vaccine were the two paralytic cases and one of
their siblings, the probable non-paralytic case as well as two children excluded
as contacts. Of these 25, three were infants between the ages of six and eight
months.
It was decided not to vaccinate any more children for the time being
because of inevitable delay in producing antibodies and the possible risk of
provoking paralysis. The possible value of injecting the unprotected children
with gamma globulin was therefore considered and it was decided to offer gamma
globulin to all children who had not been vaccinated and to those who had received
only one dose of vaccine at the time of the outbreak, providing they were
known not to be excreting virus at that time.
Gamma globulin was given to 22 eligible children whose parents had
given consent. Only one injection was given to each child, which was accepted
with little apparent concern, and there were no untoward physical reactions.
No further cases of poliomyelitis occurred in the nursery.
Efforts were made to collect faeces from each child on three occasions,
in order to study the excretion of virus over a period of time in the different
groups of children. Specimens of faeces were also collected from members
of the staff.
At one time or another 19 day nursery children were found to be excreting
poliovirus. Eight symptomless excreters had received two or more
doses of poliomyelitis vaccine. The two paralytic cases, the non-paralytic,
and eight symptomless excreters were unvaccinated.
A note on the increased demand for protection from young people is
shown on page 74 of this report.
MEASLES
The number of notified cases of measles in 1959 was 707, only 25 being
over the age of 10 years.
Five children were admitted to hospital but all made uneventful recoveries.
There were no deaths.
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