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This condition of affairs is by no means satisfactory, especially
when it.is known that the second of the two deaths which occurred
took place in a child unnotified until the fifth day of disease. In
almost every case the fault lay in the unfortunate failure of the
parents to recognise the clinical signs and symptoms of diphtheria
until the patient had been ill for several days. Further information
on the subject has been disseminated, and it is hoped that a more
speedy recognition of the disease will be met with in future.
As hitherto, Diphtheria Antitoxin is kept in stock at the
Public Health Department and issued to all medical practitioners
on application. This facility is utilised extensively, and it is quite
obvious from the demands made upon the supply at the Town Hall
that the local practitioners are not waiting for the result of a swab
in doubtful cases, but are injecting anti-toxin immediately as a
precautionary measure. This, of course, is only as it should be.
Immunisation.—A considerable advance in the campaign
against infectious disease was made during 1933 by the inauguration
of a Clinic for Immunisation against diphtheria. The first session
of the Clinic, which is held on Thursday afternoons from 2—4 in
Broomfield House, took place on March 5th, and altogether 49
sessions were held. Seven hundred and forty new cases attended
during these sessions, together with 1,760 re-visits, making a total
of 2,500 visits. It was found necessary to hold extra sessions
during the period covering the diphtheria outbreak, three such
being held per week for four weeks at Oakwood School, Chase Road
School and Broomfield House respectively. I would like here to
thank the Head Teachers of Oakwood and Chase Road Schools for the
great assistance accorded to my staff and myself during this time.
It was at their suggestion that I visited the schools, and there is no
doubt that the work of immunisation was greatly facilitated by so
doing. Next year I hope to obtain similar permission to attend
other schools in the district, as 1 consider this work too valuable to
be discontinued.
Full particulars of the work of the Clinic are set out below,
but, this being the first year of its existence, a few general remarks
may not be out of place. The staff of the Clinic consists of myself
as Medical Officer, a nurse from the Isolation Hospital, and the
Junior Clerk from the Public Health Department. No expense is
incurred in the way of salaries or use of rooms. The method of
procedure is to perform a Schick Test on all children over the age
of 5, it being considered unnecessary to do so in children under that
age owing to the overwhelming number of positive reactions found.
Those with a positive reaction (and all children under 5) receive
three weekly injections of 1 cubic centimetre of Toxoid-Antitoxin
mixture (T.A.M.) in alternate arms. Three months later they
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