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officer during poliomyelitis prevalence, and where the possibility of infection exists
action is taken to protect the interest of those who may be due for inoculations. The very
success of the immunisation campaign brings its difficulties. The modern generation of
mothers has not seen diphtheria and learnt to fear it as did their parents. For their benefit
it is necessary to repeat that unless a high level of immunisation is maintained epidemic
diphtheria will return, as it has already done in certain other countries.
As improved methods of immunisation become available they are introduced into
the Council's scheme ; investigations are in progress, both on the Council's behalf and
also in co-operation with other interested bodies, to compare the results of new methods
with those of the older methods.
Whooping cough immunisation
There is no scheme in London for immunisation against whooping cough corresponding
to that for diphtheria. Children may be immunised at the request of their parents by
arrangement at the Council's child welfare centres, and the Council pays the standard
fee of 5s. for records of such immunisation received from general medical practitioners.
Children may, if parents desire it, be immunised against both diphtheria and whooping
cough at the same time, by the use of a combined prophylactic. In spite of the fact that no
publicity is given to whooping cough immunisation the demand from parents continues
to grow and this is undoubtedly due to their familiarity with whooping cough and their
appreciation of its potential danger. The following figures show the increase in the
number of children immunised against whooping cough in the past four years, including
those receiving the combined antigen which protected them against both diphtheria and
whooping cough.
1951 1952 1953 1954
No. of children immunised against whooping cough
(a) under Council arrangements 8,874 19,447 19,292 31,985
(b) by general practitioners 432 2,786 3,427 5,449
Total 9,306 22,233 22,719 37,434
Vaccination
Facilities provided for the vaccination of infants against smallpox are similar to those for
diphtheria immunisation. The number of vaccinations of children under one year of age
has increased steadily over the past six years :
Vaccination of children under 1
Number vaccinated Percentage of annual live births
1949 13,896 25
1950 16,836 32
1951 19,700 38
1952 23,106 45
1953 24,434 48
1954 24,995 49
There was no case of generalised vaccinia or of post-vaccinal encephalomyelitis during
the year.
Re-vaccination of older children is undertaken under the Council's scheme. The
numbers of school children re-vaccinated during the past three years are shown below :
Re-vaccination of children aged 5 to 14 years
1952 804
1953 1,501
1954 2,944
13,621 vaccinations and re-vaccination were carried out by general practitioners
during the year as compared with 12,284 in the previous year.
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