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1942 and subsequent.—Trials were carried out at a wartime day
nursery in conjunction with Dr. Maclean of St. Mary's Hospital,
who supplied the vaccine. 56 were immunised and there was a
limited "follow-up" and as far as is known, none of the children
contracted whooping cough.
Later, immunisation was extended to other wartime day
nurseries as they were opened, but ceased as supplies of vaccine
became difficult to obtain.
The Medical Research Council Scheme commenced in March,
1949, and ceased in June, 1951. On the 1st April, 1953, the Local
Health Authority Scheme was extended to provide whooping cough
vaccine for general practitioners, but at least back to 1949 general
practitioners were undertaking immunisation against diphtheria and
whooping cough with a combined prophylactic and the numbers
given reflect only the record cards which were returned by general
practitioners. A combined prophylactic is obtained by the general
practitioners on Form E.C.10 through the Executive Council. Many
such immunisations are probably not included in the table above.
The vaccine used in Walthamstow has been "Glaxo suspended."
Whenever a case of whooping cough is notified in an
immunised child, it has been the practice to complete a follow-up
card and these are classified in accordance with the M.R.C. criteria
as to the severity of the attack.
Statistical Investigation.
In April, 1956, Dr. Logan, Chief Medical Statistician to the
General Register Office, wrote that he had been making a statistical
investigation into the variation in the notification rates for whooping
cough in different parts of the country over the period 1944/54.
One municipal borough was chosen at random in each administrative
county and Walthamstow came within this selection. Information
was requested as to the organised programme which had
been instituted and in what years. In addition, an estimate was
requested of the numbers immunised each year from 1944 to 1954.
On the completion of the analysis, it was found unfortunately
that the results were inconclusive. The difference in the incidence
of whooping cough (as recorded by notifications) between those
areas which have had and those which have not had an official
local immunisation scheme does not reach the level of statistical
significance. This may be partly due to the fact that there is an
unknown amount of immunisiation being carried out by general
practitioners, especially in those areas where there is no official
scheme organised by local authorities.