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1
Public Offices,
Enfield, Middx.
20th June, 1944.
Annual Report of the Medical
Officer of Health, 1943.
To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council
of Enfield.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to place before you my Annual Report for the year 1943.
There have been two outstanding features; the first is that
there have been 1,908 births to Enfield residents—the highest
number that has yet been recorded. The second is that the
total number of cases of Diphtheria that occurred in Enfield
was five. I am satisfied that this represents the result of the intensive
campaign that we have conducted to immunize the children
of Enfield against this disease. There is no doubt that its incidence
in the District was on the decline even before immunisation
was carried out on a large scale, but so low a figure as this could
not, in my opinion, have been achieved except for the acceptance
by parents of the value of immunisation, a realisation that it could
be obtained with but the slightest disturbance to a young child,
and their co-operation in securing its achievement.
In Enfield immunisation against Diphtheria is being made a
Maternity and Child Welfare function for it is offered to every child at
the age of one year, and is almost invariably accepted. It was our
practice during 1943 to offer a supplementary dose to achieve
increased protection as soon as the child entered school. There
have been certain disadvantages in this : it has meant that Teachers
have had to distribute Leaflets to parents requesting consent to