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person succumbed to non-pulmonary infection. Of these fifteen, three
gave a family history of infection and one was a relapsed case. To these
B.C.G. would not in any event have been given. The others, or fourfifths
of them, might have avoided this infection had they had the
opportunity and had they taken advantage of the opportunity of being
inoculated with B.C.G. The five girls were aged fourteen, sixteen,
nineteen, twenty and twenty-four ; the six boys fifteen, seventeen,
eighteen, twenty, twenty-three and twenty-four.
In view of the suggestion about lowering the age of routine inoculation
with a view to protecting those of ten, eleven or twelve years of age,
it is of interest to note that there was only one child of this age notified and
in her case there was a strong family history of infection, so had these
arrangements been in force, she would not have been inoculated.
The number of children aged fourteen to twenty-four who presumably
contracted the infection while living here and who gave no history of
close contact with a tuberculous patient is much the same as in the
previous year. Eleven persons of these ages were notified. B.C.G. offers
some eighty per cent protection to those inoculated. The proportion of
children who accept B.C.G. is about seventy per cent. At present then
the arrangements for B.C.G. in this district might be saving fifty-six per
cent of eleven cases amongst adolescents or six cases a year. Should this
figure become much less, there will be the question of whether the disturbance
to the school routine and the reactions amongst a proportion of
the 2,000 odd children inoculated each year, coupled with the blunting of
one of the weapons used in detecting hitherto unrecognised cases of
tuberculosis, will warrant the continuation of the practice in such a
district as this. The conclusion of the M.R.C. Tuberculosis Vaccination
Trials Committee was that for every 1,000 children given B.C.G. 1-6
cases annually are prevented.