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48. VACCINATION.
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Your Medical Officer has carried out no primary vaccinations or re-vaccinations.
He works in the closest co-operation with the Public Vaccinating Officer, who carries
out such vaccinations if and when it is necessary and possible.
49. EXAMINATION OF PATHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS, ETC.
In a previous table on page 21 I have shown the use which has been made of
the facilities provided for the examination of pathological and bacteriological
specimens.
Some people are born immune for all practical purposes to certain diseases,
and in certain diseases, such as diphtheria, where a person is not born immune,
this immunity can be provoked artificially.
It seems to me right and proper that the Authority should make available for
all persons facilities for them or their dependents to be tested to see if they are
immune to diphtheria, and, if they are not immune, for this immunity to be
provoked.
How far the immunisation of a certain part of the population is likely materially
to influence the incidence of diphtheria is another question, but I do feel strongly
that, where parents are anxious to avail themselves of these latest benefits, the
opportunity of taking such advantage should be denied to no one.
50. CLEANSING AND DISINFECTION OF VERMINOUS PERSONS.
In Barking, as I have said previously, there is no particular station which is
known as the Cleansing and Disinfecting Station, although of course a large amount
of steam disinfection is carried out at the Upney Hospital.
It seems to me that the time has come when the Council might well entertain
the possibility of setting up a Cleansing Station at the lower end of the site on which
the infectious fever hospital is built. Such a station would be in close proximity to
the laundry and the disinfector and would therefore be conveniently situated.
If it should prove practicable to get a right of way into the grounds at this point
it would not be necessary for persons who seek to have themselves or their clothes
cleansed to enter the hospital grounds.