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89
Under the 1956 arrangements, all vaccine was distributed to local
health authorities to be given by their medical staffs. From early in 1957
parents who elected to do so could have their children treated by their
family doctors. Although the extent to which the work was done by
general medical practitioners varied from one part of the district to
another, in general about half the children were treated by their own
doctors, the other half at the clinics.
In the summer there was increasing pressure on the Minister to agree
to the importation of vaccine from America to supplement the home
supplies, supplies which were not coming through sufficiently quickly for
there to be any hope that the children who had been registered for
treatment in the spring of 1956 would be treated by the time of the peak
incidence of 1957. The suggestion did not find favour, apparently on the
grounds that the preparations had not passed the rigid safety tests imposed
on the home products and partly because the vaccine, being made from
virus prevalent in America and not here, would not be as potent a preventive
to those in this country as to those given it in America. On
the point of safety, it seemed there should have been no difficulty in
arranging for the American vaccine to be subjected to the same safety
tests as the home manufactured products. In regard to the second point,
even if it were that much less potent to those in this country, many parents
would doubtless have been glad to have availed themselves of the opportunity
of having their children given this partial protection until such
time as they could have the British product.
In the summer, children born in the years 1955 and 1956 could be
registered, and also those who were born in the years 1947 to 1954 but
who had not registered in 1956 were given another opportunity of being
registered. Those children of those ages who registered in the spring of
1956 remained the priority group who were to be treated before any other
groups. In point of fact, nearly all these children were treated before the
end of the year, there being outstanding only a certain number of children
who needed their second doses; and in the meantime a start had been
made on the second priority group, those born in 1955 and in 1956.
In the autumn the Government reversed its previous decision and
decided to import vaccine from America. In anticipation of these larger
supplies coming along, a wider range of people became eligible for
treatment. These included children over the age of 6 months, expectant
mothers, general medical practitioners and their families, ambulance
personnel and those treating poliomyelitis patients in hospital and their
families. None of these extra supplies had come through by the end of
the year; nor had any arrangements been made by then for the registration
of those in these groups.
1956 was a year of low prevalence of poliomyelitis in this country,
this was not favourable to an assessment of the value of the vaccine as
a preventive. In America there had been an 80 per cent, reduction of
Paralytic poliomyelitis over the last two years, this sharp drop being
attributed to the use of the Salk vaccine.
There is, as yet, no definite information about how long the effect of
the vaccine lasts. A report issued towards the end of the year indicated
that, after the lapse of a few months, the anti-body level which had been