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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Edmonton 1958
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton]
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IMMUNIZATION
The Area Medical Officer for Area No.l. Middlesex (Edmonton and Enfield) has kindly given me the following details of immunization against Diphtheria and Whooping Cough during 1958:-
| Age | Children who completed a full course of primary immunization | Children given a reinforcing injection | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diphtheria only | Diphtheria and Whooping Cough | Whooping Cough only | Diphtheria only | Combined Diphtheria and Whooping Cough | Whooping Cough only | |
| (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | |
| Under 1 | 96 | 386 | 28 | – | – | – |
| 1 | 46 | 279 | 15 | – | – | – |
| 2-4 | 27 | 22 | 5 | 175 | 21 | 31 |
| 5-14 | 33 | 4 | 3 | 494 | 54 | 14 |
| 15 and over | – | – | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| Total: | 202 | 691 | 51 | 671 | 76 | 45 |
Most diphtheria epidemics in recent years have been associated with
schools, and the numbers of children given a reinforcing injection are therefore
important. The number of school children protected is sufficient to
ensure that any epidemic of diphtheria is likely to be small and non-fatal. It
will be observed that 856 children under the age of 4 were protected against
diphtheria, about 68% of those newly at risk per annum. 745 children under
the age of 4 were protected for the first time against whooping cough, about
63% of those newly at risk per annum. Since the whooping cough vaccine is
slightly less effective in preventing whooping cough than the diphtheria toxoid
in preventing diphtheria, it is probable that 80 to 85% of those at risk
need to be protected by the vaccine before the disease can really be banished
from homes and schools. Whooping cough is, however, becoming a much less serious
problem as a result of the immunization programme.
HEALTH EDUCATION
(A) HOME SAFETY
After careful consideration of tne subject for some months, the
Public Health Committee decided that Home Safety education would be better run
by the Public Health Committee itself than by a voluntary Home Safety Committee
Separate provision was made in the estimates for expenditure on Home Safety
education, and the Home Safety programme started with a public meeting on 24th
April 1958, in the Town Hall. The speaker was Miss Barbara Naish, Manager of
the Home Safety Department of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
and her subject was "Twenty Questions on Home Safety". Her department pub-
42