London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Acton 1937

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Acton]

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71
be Schick negative is given another dose of immunising material,
all the Schick testing material used in the Borough is four times
as strong as that in general use, so that if our children are negative
to this stronger test, they are so much nearer the blood level of
immunity to the disease.
All children also, who were inoculated ill accordance with
the scheme just described, are at the end of three years given one
further inoculation of immunising material. This one injection stirs
up all the old immunity which by this time may have begun to
wane, and helps to keep up the level of herd immunity to which
we aim. It is proposed to give this one injection to these children
every 3 years all through their school days, but so far the scheme
has not been in operation long enough to show if it is successful or
not. It is now five years since Acton started offering inoculation
against Diphtheria to all who would avail themselves of it, and
there has not been in that time one death in a fully immunised
child. During 1937 there were three deaths from Diphtheria in
School children, but none of them had been inoculated against the
disease.

The 43 cases in school children were drawn from the schools as follows:—

Acton Wells1Priory4
Beaumont Park4Rothschild5
Berrymede19Southfield1
Derwentwater3Roman Catholic5
John Perryn1

It is noticeable that the highest number of cases of Diphtheria
come from the school where the percentage of children
immunised in the Infant department is the lowest. It is in this
School, whose need is the greatest, that it is most difficult to get
consent from the parents for their children to be protected from a
disease which the crowded nature of their homes makes more deadly
for them than for others. Indifference, ignorance, and prejudice
prevent their taking advantage of the facilities offered them.
30 Diphtheria patients and 52 contacts were seen at the
office before returning to school.