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There were two cases of jaundice amongst the children who
received gamma globulin. As before, however, both children must
have been on the point of developing the disease since they fell ill
within 48 hours, and the gamma globulin could not have been expected
to stop the attack.
Of the children who did not receive an injection, 5 subsequently
developed jaundice at intervals varying from 3 to 9 weeks, thus providing
valuable and fairly substantial evidence that the gamma globulin
prepared in this country is of value in preventing jaundice.
I must record my very sincere thanks to Dr. McDonald for his
expert advice and for coming to Barking personally to help Dr.
Adamson and myself give the injections both at Gascoigne and at
Ripple Schools. We all owe much to Mr. Wood and Mr. Aston,
headmasters of the two schools, for the excellent arrangements and
for their help subsequently in following up all children with suspicious
symptoms.
Since we believe that this is one of the first "controlled' trials
of gamma globulin carried out in this country, Dr. McDonald and 1
hope to publish these results in one of the medical journals. Unfortunately
the shortage of gamma globulin will prevent its use on any wide
scale as a method of controlling the spread of this infection.
TUBERCULOSIS
During the year, the Ministry of Health published a memorandum
on the prevention of tuberculosis. I took the opportunity of submitting
to you a fairly detailed summary and certain comments thereon,
and I think that many of the points bear repetition here.
The memorandum pointed out that whilst deaths from tuberculosis
have been falling rapidly during the past five years, there has
been a very much smaller decline in the number of notifications.
This, it was suggested, called for intensified efforts to bring the disease
finally under control.
METHODS OF CONTROL
It cannot be emphasized too often that tuberculosis is an infectious
disease and that the same principles of control apply. as with other,
but more dramatic, infectious diseases.
Can we not deal with tuberculosis with the sense of urgency that
we should devote to say a smallpox outbreak? Tuberculosis has a
longer incubation period and the epidemics therefore occur in “slow
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