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Research
The measles vaccine trial organised by the Medical Research Council started
in 1964 in areas throughout the country and included the County of Middlesex and
the area now constituting the new London Borough of Enfield. The trial was
continued in the Borough by Council Health Department staff throughout the year.
Parents were invited to register children aged ten months to two years to take part
in the trial. One third of the children registered received one injection of killed
vaccine followed by one injection of live vaccine, one third received an injection
of killed vaccine only, and the remaining third acted as controls. The year was
most opportune, as the incidence of measles reached its expected high level. The
report on the trial will be published next year.
Another investigation organised by the Medical Research Council and carried
out by the Council Health Department staff commenced during the year. It
involved the collection of data to compare the degree of reaction to three brands
of triple antigen in common use. The investigation will continue next year.
International Certificates of Vaccination
Only three forms of International Certificates of Vaccination have been prescribed,
namely, for smallpox, cholera and yellow fever.
Yellow fever vaccination must, for international and technical reasons, be done
only at a centre designated by the Government, and an International Certificate
of Vaccination against yellow fever is supplied at the Centre.
Vaccination against any disease other than yellow fever can be done by a
persons own doctor. The international forms for smallpox and cholera (for completion
by the doctor) must be obtained by the traveller himself and taken to the
doctor; it is not for the doctor, or a Local Authority or their Medical Officer of
Health, to supply them. The forms can usually be obtained by the traveller (free)
from the company arranging his transport or otherwise from the Ministry of Health.
If the vaccinator is not an authorised user of an approved stamp, the person
vaccinated must have the certificate stamped by the Local Authority in whose
area the vaccinator practices. Some thousands of International Certificates were
stamped in this department during the year.
Health Education
A publicity campaign to promote acceptance of immunisation and vaccination
was run during September and October.
(Statistical Tables, 17, 18—see page 118).
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