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the county for each child immunised. Observations are also being made in one area on the
use of syringes supplied from the central sterile syringe service of a local hospital and on
disposable plastic syringes. Both the hospital-sterilised syringe and the plastic syringe are
considerably more expensive to use than the syringe sterilised by boiling in the clinic.

Mention is made above of the possible reasons for the decline in smallpox vaccination
during the year.
One child with post-vaccinal encephalitis was reported during this year. This child,
aged 12, who had a severe constitutional reaction nine days after primary vaccination,
was admitted to hospital. The cerebro-spinal fluid was at this stage normal and he recovered
in 48 hours. On the fourteenth day after vaccination he developed symptoms of meningoencephalitis.
He made a complete recovery.
No cases of generalised vaccinia were reported.
Poliomyelitis—During the year the main tasks in the poliomyelitis vaccination scheme
were the vaccination of those born in 1932 or earlier and under 40 years of age and the
administration of third doses to those who had received the second dose seven months
previously (380,499). At the same time children under one year of age were vaccinated as
part of the routine of immunisation described above.
In division 6 arrangements were made to participate in a trial of oral vaccine (using
live attenuated strains of virus) organised by the Medical Research Council. The final
report of this trial is not yet available.
The number of persons who have received protection against poliomyelitis is as follows: