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53
Poliomyelitis.
In February, 1960 the poliomyelitis vaccination scheme was
extended to include all persons up to the age of 40 years at the
date of registration and also to the following small groups:-
A. Hospital staff who come in contact with patients.
B. Practising dental surgeons, dental students, dental
hygienists, student hygienists and dental surgeons'
chairside assistants, and their families.
C. Practising nurses not working in hospitals (those
working in hospitals are already eligible) and
their families.
D, Public health staff who may come in contact with
poliomyelitis cases,and their families.
Further progress was made during the year towards the protection
of the priority groups for which vaccine had been issued by the
Ministry of Health. These groups were:-
1. Children and young persons born on or after 1st January
1933, providing that in the case of babies they have
reached the age of 6 months.
2. Expectant mothers.
Vaccination consists of one initial injection given into the
arm and approximately 4 weeks later followed by a second. After a
period of 7 months a 3rd injection is given, and at an interval of
1 year a further injection will be called for. This is known to give
a reasonable level of protection in most subjects for a number of years.
No cases of poliomyelitis were notified in Kingston during 1960.
Dysentery (Sonne).
A total of 6 cases of dysentery were notified during 1960
compared with 25 during 1959. These notifications were all in
respect of individuals or individual families. No outbreaks occurred
during the year.
Although the type of cases which occur are normally sporadic
individual dysentery cases there is always an awareness that such
infection can be widely spread by contagion from person to person,
and that the illness can have a serious effect on babies and debilitated
persons.
Most of the notifications received concern children of school age
and under, requiring treatment at home with appropriate segregation
during the carrier stage either by exclusion from school or day nursery.