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30
Report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1935.
(5) By the end of twelve months this number had
increased to 3,813. There are good grounds for assuming that
a proportion of the remainder would have been found protected
if they had attended earlier to be re-tested.
In addition to the 4,203 persons who have been protected,
208 have completed the first series of injections but cannot be
recorded as protected because the last re-Schick test has given a
positive result. 87 of these have not attended since this positive
re-test. The other 121 have attended the Clinics and have
received further injections but have not yet reacted negative to
the re-Schick test.
A further 1,291 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 557 who completed the first series
of three injections and 734 who only received one or two doses
of T.A.F. or T.A.M.
61 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.
Seven children who have received immunising injections at
the Centres have developed Diphtheria. In one case the reSchick
test had been positive, four had given a negative re-test and
two had not been re-tested. In six instances the attacks were mild,
but one of the children who had not been re-tested suffered from
a rather severe attack.
In addition to these seven 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