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24 Report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1934.
recorded as protected because the last re-Schick test has given a
positive result. 82 of these have not attended since this positive
re-test. The other 125 have attended the Clinics and have
received further injections but have not yet reacted negative to
the re-Schick test.
A further 1,231 persons have been given immunising injections
at the Clinics but have not attended to be re-tested, so that it is
impossible to determine the value of the injections they have
received. This number includes 559 who completed the first series
of three injections and 672 who only received one or two
doses.
59 susceptible persons have not yet commenced a course
of injections.
Diphtheria Following Immunising Injections :—Owing
to the fact that immunity does not develop at once it is important
to remember that a child may develop Diphtheria during the
period which elapses between the administration of the immunising
injections and the full establishment of immunity, if exposure
to infection occurs. Parents should be warned on this point.
For the same reason, if immunisation is delayed until an epidemic
of Diphtheria occurs it may easily be carried out too late to prevent
infection.
Six children who have received at least three immunising
injections at the Centres have developed Diphtheria. In at least
four of the cases the attack was a mild one, and all of them
recovered.
In addition to these six cases of clinical Diphtheria, cultures
of the Diphtheria organism have been obtained from nine other
children some time after they had been immunised at the Clinics
and had re-acted negative to the re-Schick Test. In another
case this occurred in a child three months after he had given a
negative reaction to the primary Schick Test. In none of these
cases was there any definite clinical evidence that they were
suffering from Diphtheria and this was no doubt due to the fact
that they had become insusceptible to the disease.
Scarlet Fever.
1,573 cases of Scarlet Fever occurred, compared with 1,307
in 1933, 763 in 1932, and 678 in 1931.