View report page

20
Now this is a crying scandal! The evil effects of rubella
in early pregnancy have been known since soon after the last war
- fifteen years at least. The number of babies ravaged probably
far exceeds the number damaged by thalidomide, yet there is no
public outcry and no steps taken to halt these calamities.
Prevention is obvious and easy. We must do everything possible
to ensure that all children, and especially girls, contract
this mild illness before they leave school. Par from isolating
and quarantining rubella, the sufferer from it should be
positively welcomed to school with a fanfare of trumpets.
Parents should be encouraged to expose their children to infection
a revival of the "measles tea party" of the last century.
Our virologists should be urged to find ways of spreading the
disease - not of containing it. If only a way of preserving the
virus could be found, as we do with vaccinia lymph, every girl
leaving school who had not contracted the disease could be
offered it, and with it protection against the disease later on.
Usually rubella is less of a nuisance than is vaccination.
It should be stressed again and again, that both varieties
of measles - ordinary and rubella - are highly infectious, so
that with very few exceptions everybody in our urban civilisation
catches them. Isolation and quarantine do not safeguard anybody
from catching these diseases; they simply ensure that they are
caught later, when they are more unpleasant and - in the case of
german measles can wreak havoc with a precious new life. These
measures do no good; they only harm. I know that it goes against
the whole tradition of public health to spread disease; yet with
rubella, both doctors and the general public must learn that this
is the right thing to do."
DENTAL CLINIC
Mr. G.P.L. Taylor submits the following report on the work
of the School Dental Service:
"Our hopes for the recruitment of more full-time dental
officers were not fulfilled, but the part-time surgeons continued
to give valuable assistance in the department. This enabled us
to inspect and offer treatment to a slightly larger number of
children than in 1962. However, there has been a lessened
response to the treatment offered after school inspections. In
quite a number of cases the offer is ignored. I hope, in the
coming year, that this can be overcome by some dental health
propaganda.